Verkhneudinskaya sinagoga, Regional cultural heritage synagogue in Ulan-Ude, Russia.
Verkhneudinskaya synagogue is a two-storey brick building with a helmet-shaped dome, standing at the corner of Smolina and Sverdlova streets in Ulan-Ude. Its prayer hall had benches with reading stands on both the lower and upper levels. It no longer serves as a synagogue: since 1934 the building has housed a teaching block of VSGUTU.
The Jewish house of prayer in Verkhneudinsk was built in 1882 on land bought in 1880 from the local meshchanka Agrafena Sterkhova; construction cost three thousand rubles. It stood at the corner of Smolina and Sverdlova streets. Electricity reached the building in 1911 and a telephone two years later. The synagogue was closed on 8 April 1929, and from 4 February 1934 the building housed an aeroclub.
The building no longer serves as a synagogue: it was closed on 8 April 1929. On 4 February 1934 an aeroclub opened in the former prayer hall, and today the building houses a teaching block of VSGUTU, the East Siberian State University of Technology and Management. The corner site at Smolina and Sverdlova streets marks the former Jewish prayer house of Verkhneudinsk.
The former synagogue stands at the corner of Smolina Street (formerly Bolshaya Naberezhnaya) and Sverdlova Street (formerly Sennaya) in central Ulan-Ude. It is now the academic building of VSGUTU, so access follows the university's terms rather than those of a house of worship; visitors view the exterior and the building's setting from the street.
The building has not been a synagogue since 8 April 1929; on 4 February 1934 an aeroclub opened in it, and today it houses a teaching building of VSGUTU, the East Siberian State University of Technology and Management. The former prayer hall is thus a university corridor, not a place of worship.
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