{"id":268,"date":"2024-08-20T08:41:44","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T07:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/?p=268"},"modified":"2024-08-20T08:47:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T07:47:17","slug":"the-circular-synagogue-of-koszeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/2024\/08\/20\/the-circular-synagogue-of-koszeg\/","title":{"rendered":"The Circular Synagogue of K\u00f6szeg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the year 5620, a certain Philip Schey donated 20.000 Forint (today’s equivalent of about 10 ice cream coffees) to build a most unusual synagogue. It is designed as a circle within a square, topped by a magnificent dome. On any day the space is filled with light from all sides. It is somewhat difficult to imagine how it must have felt at nightfall, what sort of lighting they used at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The floors are covered with beautifully laid out tiles and the walls, be they flat or curved, are covered with colourful decorations and artful mimicry of (much more expensive) stucco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The place has been marvelously well renovated (there are photographs on display showing what it looked like just a few years ago). Only the Aron Kodesh <\/em>apparently has been left at it was: without doors, without a curtain and without the former (no doubt intricate) ornaments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears to me that leaving the Aron Kodesh <\/em>as it was must have been a conscious choice, and a good one. It reminds us that this house of worship has been destroyed and no amount of painstaking renovation can repair the damage: the destruction of a vibrant and proud Jewish community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, the architect of this beautiful Synagogue is unknown. No doubt he was a great artist. The sponsor, however, Mr. Schey was a well-known businessman who \u2014 among other enterprises \u2014 helped build railway lines throughout the Habsburgs’ lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Synagogue was inaugurated in 1860, the ceremony was attended by (at least in hindsight) illustrious guests from Vienna: Chief Rabbi Adolf Jellinek and Chief Cantor Salomon Sulzer along with members of the Viennese Tempelchor.<\/em> The latter fact, of course, makes me feel especially connected to this place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Seen from the street <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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From the park across the street <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The rabbi’s house contains a small exhibition <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some photographs of the interior:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Give Zdoke!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Before prayer, wash your hands!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Aron Kodesh <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Aron Kodesh <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Some photos from before the renovations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the year 5620, a certain Philip Schey donated 20.000 Forint (today’s equivalent of about 10 ice cream coffees) to build a most unusual synagogue. It is designed as a circle within a square, topped by a magnificent dome. On any day the space is filled with light from all sides. It is somewhat difficult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,4,9],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-10","tag-former-synagogue","tag-hungary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishbitsandpieces.rennert.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}