After reconstruction, the Spanish Synagogue in Prague will reopen

Prague – After a year and a half of reconstruction, the Spanish Synagogue in Prague will reopen to visitors on December 16. The renovations, which cost several tens of millions of crowns, expanded the exhibition space to over 600 m² and allowed for barrier-free access to three floors of the synagogue. The new exhibition maps the last 200 years of Jewish history in the Czech lands. The synagogue will continue to be used for evening events, especially classical music concerts. This was stated today by the spokesman for the Jewish Museum in Prague, Tomáš Tetiva, in a press release.

The past two centuries, full of historical twists experienced by the Jewish community in Bohemia and Moravia, will be showcased through a long-term exhibition featuring Judaica and other three-dimensional exhibits, documents, films, and photographs. According to the museum director Leo Pavlát, a significant new aspect of the exhibition is the attention given to Jewish history from 1945 to 1989, as well as in the subsequent period.

The Spanish Synagogue is the youngest synagogue in the former Jewish Town in Prague’s Josefov. It is located at the corner of Dušní and Vězeňská streets, next to the Church of the Holy Spirit. The owner of the synagogue is the Jewish Community of Prague, which rents it to the Jewish Museum in Prague. A probable 12th-century synagogue, known as the Old School (Altschul), once stood in the location of the current synagogue. Because it no longer met the capacity needs of the reform Jewish community using it in the second half of the 19th century, the Society for the Adjusted Worship of Israelites in Prague commissioned the construction of the Spanish Synagogue on the site of the demolished Old School between 1867 and 1868. The synagogue features interior décor in Moors style, inspired by the famous Spanish Alhambra. In 1935, a functionalist building was added to the synagogue, which served as a hospital after World War II.

During World War II, the synagogue served as a storage facility for confiscated synagogue items from Czech Jewish communities. The State Jewish Museum took it under its care in 1955, and an exhibition of synagogue textiles was opened there in 1960. From the 1970s, the synagogue was neglected and closed in 1982. Reconstruction could only begin after 1989, and in the 1990s, the Spanish Synagogue was restored.