Logo Polskiego Radia

Wooden wonder unveiled at Warsaw Jewish museum

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 13.03.2013 11:49
A reconstruction of the cupola of a 17th century wooden synagogue was installed on Tuesday at the forthcoming Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

Maria
Maria Piechotka, retired architect and author of several acclaimed studies on wooden synagogues. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell

Craftsmen and artists had been able to make use of archival photographs of the synagogue from the former Polish town of Gwozdziec (now Hvizdets, Ukraine).

“The wooden 17th century synagogues built in eastern Poland were something exceptional on the world map,” said retired architect and specialist Maria Piechotka, who attended the unveiling yesterday, as cited by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

Like other synagogues in the region, the building was torched by the Nazi Germans during the Second World War.

The reconstruction was carried out by Massachusetts-based Handshouse Studio, and it will be one of the highlights of the forthcoming Polish museum, which is scheduled to open in October this year.

The exhibition space of the building will take in some 12,800 square metres, with costs expected to reach 160 million zloty (38.6 million euros), largely funded by private donors.

“We are creating something that will be much more than a museum,” director Andrzej Cudak said.

“It will be a multi-purpose educational and cultural centre, a place for meetings and discussions in an exceptional building,” he added.

Poland had a population of about 3.3 million Jews prior to World War II, but only about 10 percent survived the conflict. Thousands left the country following the war, and a further wave of emigration occurred in 1968 after Poland's communist government launched an 'anti-Zionist' campaign. (nh)


Print
Copyright © Polskie Radio S.A About Us Contact Us