Brandýs n/Labem

The Brandýs synagogue

First mention of a synagogue in Brandýs dates back to 1559. The current synagogue was built in 1829 after one of many fires. The builders used the old foundations and part of the perimeter walls from the main hall. The new synagogue was constructed as a long, rectangular building, which in addition to the main hall included a community center with teacher’s quarters, winter prayer room, classroom, kitchen and women’s entrance and stairwell leading up to the women’s gallery of the synagogue. The main hall features false cloister vaulting and two levels of right-angle galleries in Classicist-Empire style for women and possibly also for the choir. Archaeological work has uncovered the foundations for an oval two-story gallery. The attempt to construct such a complex gallery may have been inspired by the New Synagogue in Vienna, which was consecrated in 1826 – one year before reconstruction of the Brandýs synagogue started. The Brandýs synagogue originally placed the elevated platform for reading the Torah (bimah) in the center of the hall, but at the turn of the 19th century the central bimah was replaced with a podium encircled with railings that immediately connected to the Torah ark in the eastern wall. In the 1950s the gallery and Torah ark were destroyed and the main hall reroofed and painted white to convert the synagogue into a warehouse. The reconstruction of the building is based on existing documents showing the original appearance of the synagogue and archaeological work that uncovered sections of the original murals, which were restored and replenished as part of the reconstruction project. The total cost of the “Revitalization of Jewish Monuments in the Czech Republic” project in Brandýs amounted to CZK 25,307,000.