Polná

Synagogue and rabbinical house

The Old Synagogue once stood in the Lower Town in the courtyard of the house of Samuel the Jew at Růžová Street no. 73. After creation of the Jewish Town, in 1684 the authorities built a new stone-and-brick synagogue with vaulted ceilings, and also provided for its interior furnishings and wall paintings. In 1861 the synagogue was significantly modernized: the old vaulting was torn down, the walls and ceiling raised by 1.5m, a new women’s gallery constructed with a stone staircase, and the interior was decorated with wall paintings featuring Gothic tracery. In 1717, the Jewish community built a two-story rabbinical house (XIX, house no. 541) next to the synagogue, which incorporated an older ritual bath in the basement. The ground floor once housed a store, a smoke kitchen with a bread oven, the shamash’s quarters, and the entryway to the mikveh; on the upper floor were the rabbi’s office and quarters, and (after 1780) the “rabbinical chapel”, which was used as a winter prayer room. From 1785 to 1850, the building also housed the local Jewish school. Services were held in the synagogue until the fall of 1941, after which the interior furnishings were destroyed and the building used as a warehouse. After the war, the synagogue continued to be used as a storehouse and deteriorated. The roof collapsed in 1969, but the building’s planned demolition was never carried out. In 1994, the Polná town council transferred ownership of the synagogue to the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, which renovated the building in 1998–2000 and 2010–2014. Total project-related expenditures amount to CZK 26,014,000.