Štúrovo Square 6994, 911 01 Trenčín, Slovakia
In the past, a large Jewish community was an integral part of the city. The first mention of its presence can be found at the beginning of the 14th century. Large groups came here especially at the end of the 17th and 18th centuries, when Jews from Bohemia and Moravia moved to the city. They became known as skilled craftsmen or merchants, which in the following years also had a positive impact on the economic development of Trenčín.
In the past, Jews could settle not behind the city walls, but outside them. Today's Štúrovo Square or Vjezdoslavova Street were already beyond the forbidden zone. Therefore, the Jewish community concentrated in these places, gradually expanding. For religious purposes, it was first used as a prayer house, which existed on the site of today's synagogue in the first half of the 18th century. Later, in 1781, it was replaced by a wooden synagogue.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Jews made up 15 to 20 percent of Trenčín's population. The original wooden synagogue was no longer sufficient for the large religious community, and in 1905 the first initiative to build a new synagogue in the city appeared. But due to a lack of money, they had to postpone plans for five years. At that time, bank director Vojtech Friedman also intervened, providing financial coverage for the entire project. He organized fundraising, to which the free royal city of Trenčín also contributed 20,000 crowns. The old synagogue was demolished, and after 18 months of construction, a new one was built in its place. It was solemnly opened and consecrated on Tuesday, September 23, 1913.
The synagogue in Trenčín is the work of the designer from a Berlin studio and native of the town Piešťany, Richard Seibner, and his colleague Hugo Pal. The remarkable building is an example of early modernist trends that sought to reduce the amount of decoration while preserving monumental classical forms. It is a mixture of Byzantine style and Art Nouveau with a modern reinforced concrete dome construction. As historical postcards show, the main prayer hall was once richly decorated. To this day, some details are visible, including stained glass, blue painting on the dome, and a historic chandelier in the center.
The Trenčín synagogue is considered one of the most beautiful such buildings in Slovakia. The historic building in the Eastern Byzantine style was built on the site of the old wooden synagogue from 1781. It was erected in 1913 according to the design of Berlin architect Richard Seibner, a native of Trenčín. The construction work was supervised by the local firm Fuxa and Negreca.
On September 23, 1913, the synagogue was opened and consecrated. During the years of the First Czechoslovak Republic, the local Jewish community numbered 2,000 people, so the construction of a new spacious prayer house was quite justified. This synagogue was used for its intended purpose until World War II. World War II greatly affected the entire Jewish community of Trenčín. The synagogue itself was damaged and desecrated by members of the Nazi organization Freiwillige Schutzstaffel and the Glinka Guard, who also destroyed its interior. According to eyewitnesses, soldiers on horseback rode inside the building. The destruction of the building continued during the bombing of the city in May 1945, during which most of the richly decorated stained glass windows were destroyed.
After the war, Holocaust survivors organized fundraising and repaired the synagogue between 1945 and 1948. It was solemnly reopened and consecrated, and a memorial plaque with the names of Holocaust victims was installed on its grounds. However, the socialist regime came to power, which also showed no respect for the synagogue. They used its premises as a clothing warehouse, and the “final blow” was the reconstruction in the 1970s and 1980s, which destroyed the original acoustics and beautiful decor.
In 1990, a small prayer hall was equipped in the rear part of the building, where a small number of local Jews sometimes gather. In the early 1990s, they installed a new plaque in the synagogue in honor of the tortured victims of the Holocaust and rebuilt a small prayer room in the back of the building, which is currently used for worship purposes. In 1993, the building was restored by the Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities of the Slovak Republic, which in 2018 returned it to the ownership of the restored Jewish religious community in Trenčín.
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