''Il Kal Grande'', also spelled ''Il Kal Grandi'' (

Judaeo-Spanish Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew script: , Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: ), also known as Ladino, is a Romance languages, Romance language derived from Old Spanish language, Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain ...

: The Great Synagogue) was the place of worship of the Sephardi community in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The large synagogue was constructed in the

Moorish Revival Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centu ...

style in 1930, by a design of the architect Rudolf Lubinski. It was acknowledged as the largest and most ornate synagogue in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. It was heavily damaged by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

in 1941 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and the majority of the

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

community killed in the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. After the war, all Jews of Sarajevo used synagogue of the Ashkenazi community. The exterior of "Il Kal Grande" was restored in a simplified secular form in 1965, and the former dome was replaced with a flat roof. The building was initially used as the

Đuro Đaković Đuro Đaković (30 November 1886 – 25 April 1929) was a Yugoslav metal worker, communist and revolutionary. Đaković was the organizational secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, from April 1928 to April ...

Workers' University and currently as the Bosnian Cultural Center. Sarajevo synagogue postcard

References

External links

Sarajevo´s synagogues
riowang.blogspot.com Sephardi Jewish culture in Bosnia and Herzegovina Sephardi synagogues Synagogues in Bosnia and Herzegovina Buildings and structures in Sarajevo Synagogues completed in 1930 Moorish Revival synagogues National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina Religious buildings and structures in Sarajevo Synagogue buildings with domes Synagogues destroyed by Nazi Germany {{Bosnia-stub

See also

References

External links