Blog

This synagogue is one of the most beautiful in Slovakia, a stunning monument to the Jewish community of Malacky. Designed by the Vienna-based architect Wilhelm Stiassny (1842-1910), it was built in 1900 on the site of a synagogue from 1886. Also designed by Stiassny, the original building was devasted by fire in 1889. A fine example of Moorish style architecture, its two towers, horseshoe arches, and typical red and yellow striping make the synagogue one of the most elaborate buildings in town.
Read more

Constructed for the town’s Neolog community in 1924-1926, this colossal building is a grand memorial to the Jews of Lučenec. Surrounded by a typical communist-era housing estate, the synagogue narrowly escaped demolition in the 1980s. The building was designed by the well-known Budapest-based synagogue architect, Lipót Baumhorn.

Read more

An impressive edifice in the center of town, the synagogue is a blend of its various stages of construction. The original structure was destroyed by fire in 1878. Rebuilt, it was again damaged by fire in 1906. This time it was refurbished according to designs by the leading synagogue architect in the country, Lipót (Leopold) Baumhorn, from Budapest. Baumhorn retained the outer shell and neo-Classical portico with its Ionic capitols and tympanum.

Read more

The synagogue in Levice has been owned by the municipality since 1991, and in 2011-2012 underwent complete restoration. It is now used as a venue for cultural purposes. It was constructed in 1883 on the edge of the historical center, on a building lot created after the moat of the town’s former fortifications was filled in.

Read more

The Orthodox synagogue on Puškinova Street is one five extant synagogues in Košice – a silent witness to the rich Jewish past of Slovakia’s second city. Constructed in 1927 for the Orthodox community as a modern urban synagogue with adjoining Jewish school, it is still used by the Jewish Community of Košice as a house of worship, although the school building is no longer owned by the community.

Read more

Košice’s most significant Jewish heritage site is the Orthodox Jewish community compound. The compound includes a historic mikvah (ritual bath), the offices of the Jewish community and rabbinate, and a small synagogue used for regular services. Next to it is a built-in sukkah with a sliding roof, which is still used. In the middle of the area stands the partially restored old Orthodox synagogue, which was used as library storage during the communist period.

Read more

Today the center of Jewish religious and cultural life in Komárno, the Menház (former Jewish poorhouse) compound, built in 1896, comprises the former Jewish old-age home and its synagogue. A single-story, L-shaped, neo-Gothic complex with unplastered brick façades, the Menház stands at the intersection of two streets, with its main entrance on the corner. The synagogue is located at the northern rear side of the complex and has a charming Gothic interior that retains its original furniture and highly decorative cast-iron tie bars.

Read more

The Museum of Jewish Culture, which is a branch of the Slovak National Museum, is a prominent state-run institution focusing on Jewish heritage. Located in the Zsigray Mansion, a surviving house of Bratislava’s former Judengasse (Jewish Street), the Museum of Jewish Culture is the only reminder of the historic Jewish neighborhood, which was razed in the 1960s when the SNP Bridge was constructed.

Read more

The Chatam Sofer Memorial is a Jewish holy site and important place of pilgrimage, where the Chatam Sofer and other prominent rabbis and Torah scholars are buried. The origins of this unique underground compound date back to the seventeenth century, when the Jewish community established its cemetery here. The cemetery was destroyed in 1943-1944, when a tunnel was constructed. Most of the graves were exhumed, and the bones carefully reburied at the New Orthodox cemetery, which is located nearby.

Read more

The only remaining synagogue in Bratislava is located on Heydukova Street, not far from the historical city center. It was constructed in 1923-1924 after designs by architect Arthur Szalatnai-Slatinský as a branch synagogue of the Orthodox Jewish community. The synagogue exterior has a towerless, seven-pillared colonnade facing the street. The interior includes a large sanctuary in which modern steel-and-concrete construction and contemporary Cubist details are combined with historicist elements, such as the arcade of the women’s gallery, a metal bimah, and the ark.

Read more