Jubilee Synagogue on Jeruzalémská
Why is it significant?
Stop in front of the facade and let your eyes adjust: stripes of red, yellow and cream, horseshoe arches, a huge round window with a Star of David, little domed turrets... in a narrow side street of offices, as if a palace from Granada had been dropped into Central Europe.
Key Facts
| Place | Jubilee Synagogue on Jeruzalémská |
|---|---|
| Address | Jeruzalémská 7, 110 00 Praha 1, Czechia |
| Geo Coordinates | 50.08480, 14.43220 |
| Part of Walk | Gilded Leaves and Crystal Facades: Prague's Art Nouveau & Cubist Walk |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop in front of the facade and let your eyes adjust: stripes of red, yellow and cream, horseshoe arches, a huge round window with a Star of David, little domed turrets... in a narrow side street of offices, as if a palace from Granada had been dropped into Central Europe.
This is the Jubilee Synagogue, also called the Jerusalem Synagogue after its street. It was built in 1905 and 1906 to designs by the Viennese architect Wilhelm Stiassny, and named in honour of the jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph, who had marked fifty years on the throne in 1898. The style mixes Moorish Revival, popular for synagogues across Europe, with Art Nouveau ornament and colour.
Why build a new synagogue here, so far from the old Jewish Town? Because of the clearance of Josefov, the old ghetto. From the 1890s the city demolished most of it in the name of hygiene and progress, and several synagogues were pulled down with the houses. Prague's Jews needed a new house of prayer, in the New Town where many of them now lived and worked. You will see the other side of that clearance later on this walk, on Pařížská.
During the Nazi occupation, the synagogue was not destroyed. It was used as a warehouse for property confiscated from deported Jewish families... furniture, books, objects of daily life, stacked up in a house of prayer. Most of Prague's Jews were deported to Terezín and onwards to the death camps, and the great majority never returned. After the war the building returned to the small surviving community, and it is still an active synagogue today.
Look above the main entrance for the Hebrew verse from the Psalms, about a gate through which the righteous shall enter. Inside, when it is open to visitors, the galleries glow with stencilled patterns and gilding, and there are exhibitions about the Jewish community of Prague. Now make your way east, past Senovážné náměstí, to the park in front of the main station. Beyond the busy road rise two towers crowned with glass domes.