Jeruzalémská 1310/7: Jubilee Synagogue

Also known as the Jerusalem synagogue and ‘Velká synagoga’ or ‘Great synagogue’, the Jubilee synagogue was originally proposed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the reign of Franz Josef I in 1898. Five years earlier, a law had been passed ordering the destruction of the Jewish ghetto in the name of sanitation, and the Jubilee was in part a replacement for three of the larger synagogues demolished in that clearance.

The new building, designed in mozarabic style by the Viennese architect Wilhelm Stiassny and built by Alois Richter, was completed in 1906, its polychromic facade dominated by a vast arch with the Hebrew inscription ‘This is God’s gate, through which the righteous enter’. It was restored in the 1990s and reopened as place of worship in 1996. The interior is a wonder of art nouveau.