{"id":10632,"date":"2018-10-16T20:33:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T18:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/?p=10632"},"modified":"2018-11-09T22:58:06","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T20:58:06","slug":"subotica-synagogue-is-it-the-most-beautiful-synagogue-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/2018\/subotica-synagogue-is-it-the-most-beautiful-synagogue-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Subotica synagogue – is it the most beautiful synagogue in the world ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I arrived Subotica<\/a> with high expectations. Curious to visit this city, situated in the autonomous province of\u00a0Vojvodina<\/a>, Serbia, not far from the border with Hungary. Hundreds of years ago it was a tiny town in the Kingdom of Hungary, and later became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Towards the end of the 19th century, peace and prosperity brought fresh artistic influences through Budapest, and Subotica became a center of Secession architecture – Hungarian flavor of Art Nouveau. Jews who lived in Subotica were not restricted from any occupations, and the Jewish community of the city flourished. At the beginning of the 20th century, a design competition took place for a new synagogue. The Jewish community decided to choose the design that won… second prize in the competition, a design by Marcell Komor and Dezs\u00f6 Jakab, at that time famous Hungarian architects from Budapest. They designed the synagogue in Hungarian Art Nouvaeau style, and since then it is the only synagogue in Europe which contains aspects of this artistic style. Art Nouvaeau is all about decorations inspired by nature – feathers, branches, flowers, curves – perfect for a synagogue, where human figures are forbidden. The synagogue was finally built in 1902.<\/p>\n

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Looking at the small city of Subotica (around 100,000 residents) from the City Hall Clock Tower (yet another magnificent Hungarian Art Nuveau building by Komor & Jakab), the synagogue dominates the sight.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n

Getting closer, its facades are truly remarkable.\u00a0Facade decorations and roof tiles were made by the\u00a0P\u00e9cs\u00a0Zsolnay ceramics factory, that supplied ceramics to many buildings in Subotica that were built in similar style.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_1_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_2_placeholder\n

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The synagogue can host up to 1600 people, on the ground floor for men and upper gallery for women. The main hall is 23 meters high, the diameter of the dome is 12.6 meters, and the total height of the building is 40 meters.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_3_placeholder\n

This is a view of the Ark (“Aron Hakodesh”).<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_4_placeholder\n

and here’s a view to the opposite side<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_5_placeholder\n

From the upper gallery, the sight is breathtaking<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_6_placeholder\n

with another\u00a0angle of\u00a0the Ark<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_7_placeholder\n

and a general dramatic view<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_8_placeholder\n

Stained glass windows were made by Miksa Roth studio in Budapest.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_9_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_10_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_11_placeholder\n

And here is the dome<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_12_placeholder\n

Prior to World War II, the Jewish community of Subotica had 6000 people. Most of them were murdered by the Nazis. After the holocaust the tiny community that was left in Subotica could not maintain the building, and it became a property of the city in 1976. During the 1980s, theater performances were held there. But in the past few years, the synagogue gains its resurrection. It has been\u00a0carefully renovated and regained its former glory, attracting curious people from all over the world to enjoy its beauty. In autumn 2018 the synagogue is still not officially open for visitors, but it will be so in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A magnificent example of Hungarian Art Nouveau, the huge synagogue in Subotica, Serbia, is a truly inspiring temple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,100],"tags":[16,17,35],"class_list":["post-10632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-europe","category-europe","tag-architecture","tag-art","tag-judaism"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10632"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10636,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10632\/revisions\/10636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}