High Synagogue (Prague)

High Synagogue ( cs, Vysoká synagoga) was financed by

Mordechai Maisel Mordecai Marcus Meisel ( cs, Miška Marek Majzel; 1528, Prague – 13 March 1601, Prague) was a philanthropist and communal leader in Prague. Biography Born to the Meisel family. In 1542 and 1561 his family, with the other Jewish inhabitants, w ...

, and it was finished in 1568, the same year as the Jewish Town Hall. Probably it was modelled after

High Synagogue, Kraków High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...

, which was built in 1556 in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The house was designed by P. Roder in

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

(supervising builder was master Rada). It was designed as a preaching place for councilors of Jewish town hall. In the center there were bimah, surrounded by seats.

gave pieces of

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

and silver tools to the synagogue. The

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

ceiling was

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

ribbed vaulting. Vysoká synagoga, Praha

In 1689 it was destroyed by the Great Fire. The synagogue was reconstructed. In 1883 the synagogue was rebuilt by J. M. Wertmüller. During this modification the facade was simplified to the modern appearance. In 1907 the eastern entrance was closed, and a new entrance was made facing Red Street (''Červená ulice''). Other reconstructions were during 1961, 1974–79 and 1982. During the Nazi and communist rule, the synagogue was part of Jewish Museum and there was an exhibition of old Hebrew books. {{coord, 50.090, N, 14.419, E, display=title, source:cswiki Religious buildings and structures completed in 1568 Synagogues completed in 1883 Synagogues in Prague 16th-century synagogues 1568 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Josefov (Prague)