Synagogue
Heritage Sites – Synagogues, prayer houses and others
Polska / małopolskie
The first wooden synagogue was established as early as 1830 near a manor house “Mikołaj”, on the outskirts of Wadowice, so-called Groble[1.1].
The contributions paid by about 75 families at this time were not enough to build a temple, so the Wadowice synagogue was erected in 1885–1889 on Gimnazjalna Street after the kehilla took a loan in Bielsko banks, which it paid back as late as 1918. Engineer Karol Korn from Bielsko (founder of the local synagogue) was the builder. Erected on the initiative of German Jews and on such assumptions as well, the style in which the Wadowice synagogue was constructed was a popular trend in Germany at the end of the 19th century. Except the ceiling covered with stars, its décor was simple with no wall paintings. Above the Aron ha-Kodesh was one quotation from the Bible. A bimah made of marble and ebony stood right next to. According to the design, there were also supposed to be a women’s gallery and a room for organs in the temple, which was to be modeled on Reform synagogues. However, when the realization came that more and more Orthodox Jews arrived in the town, the plans were abandoned and the entrance to the gallery was walled up. With a standing room and a few hundred seats, the building could hold almost 700 people. Surrounded with quite a large fenced yard, the synagogue was a huge, tall construction topped with a dome on the outside. The Nazis burnt it down in October 1939 and German civil authorities blew up the remaining walls in the summer of 1940.
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[1.1] Iwańska, Katarzyna. „Wadoviana” No. 9, Wadowice 2005, p. 5. The date of its destruction is not known.
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