In Kroměříž there is a synagogue that was demolished by the Nazis during the war

Kroměříž - In Kroměříž, starting today, a synagogue that has not existed for more than seventy years can be seen. The large-scale depiction of the Jewish prayer house is located on the wall of the Culture House in the place where this monumental building once stood. Pavel Zrna, head of the municipal department of culture and tourism, told ČTK.

"Although it was technically impossible to maintain the original scale of the building, thanks to the installation, not only tourists but also the Kroměříž residents themselves can realistically imagine what the synagogue looked like and what kind of symbiosis it created with its surroundings, which we only know from historical photographs," Zrna described. The Culture House is currently undergoing reconstruction, and its front wall is covered with scaffolding.

"We decided to remedy this visual handicap by reminding people of the relatively recent and still frequently discussed history of our town. The Kroměříž archive provided us with a beautiful pen drawing of the synagogue, which we transferred onto a canvas and installed on the front wall of the Culture House, where it will remain throughout the duration of the work," Zrna added.

According to him, the synagogue is the first major installation of this year's tourist season, titled Kroměříž 2016: In Colors, Light, Art. Its goal is to enrich the public space with unusual artistic endeavors. It will include, for example, 3D painting, videomapping projections, and street art.

The historically third and also the last synagogue in Kroměříž was built by builder Ladislav Mesenský on today's Komenského Square between 1909 and 1910, according to the design of architect Jakub Gartner. However, fate did not allow this architectural gem to last long. As early as 1940, the Jewish community in Kroměříž practically ceased to exist, and the synagogue was slated for demolition.

"This happened in November 1942. The demolition was carried out by a German garrison, which had great problems with the demolition and had to repeat it several times. Local inhabitants took the material from the demolished building," said Jitka Zezulová, director of the State District Archive in Kroměříž. Next to the site where the synagogue stood, a monument to the Kroměříž victims of the Holocaust by Olbram Zoubek was unveiled in 1994.