Olomouc Synagogue (1897 – 1939)

PRESS RELEASE | 18. 10 2017 

EXHIBITION: Olomoucká synagoga (1897 – 1939) 
VERNISATION: 19. 10. 2017 | 18.30
DURATION: 7. 1. 2018 
LOCATION: Archdiocesan Museum | Gallery
EXHIBITORS CONCEPT AUTHORS: Gabriela Elbelová
CURATOR: Gabriela Elbelová
ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTION: Tomáš Lampar
GRAPHIC SOLUTION: Petr Šmalec
CONSERVATORIES AND RESTAURANTS: Ondřej Žák
INSTALLATION: Ondřej Kutra, Vlastimil Sedláček, Filip Šindelář, Ondřej Žák

Immediately on the first day of the occupation, the Olomouc fascists fired a unique synagogue in the Moorish-Byzantine style, which stood behind the Tereza Gate at todays Square of Jan Palach. Her beauty, size and tragic warfare of the entire Jewish community will be reminded of a new exhibition in the Archdiocesan Museum called the Olomouc Synagogue (1897 - 1939).

"The exhibition has two parts. The first is the architecture of the synagogue itself and the work of architect Jakob Gartner, the second is the religious life of the Jewish community in Olomouc until 1942, which reminds text panels with medallions of significant representatives of the community, contemporary photographs or preserved prayer books," said Gabriela Elbelová, curator of the exhibition.

Visitors will see part of the preserved original equipment of the defunct building. "From 1942 to 1945, large treasures of valuable synagogue objects took place on the territory of the whole Protectorate. These were especially silver and other valuable items. Everything went to Prague, where the Jewish Central Museum was founded. After the war, in some cases, thanks to the donation inscriptions, it was determined that they came from Olomouc," explains Gabriela Elbelová. In addition, the gallery will see benches and stained glass windows that survived the fire of the building. "In the Olomouc temple, it was originally about a hundred benches, but only ten rows were preserved. Already at the end of 1939, she bought a parish in Olšany near Prostějov, where in the local church of St. John the Baptist served until 2003. Three ranks of benches succeeded in acquiring the Respekt and tolerance civic association for the recently reconstructed synagogue in Loštice. They just lent us one row of benches together with five stained-glass windows," adds curator.

The exhibition will also present the native of Přerov, the architect of Jewish origin Jakob Gartner, who built the Olomouc synagogue in a historicist style with Moorish-Byzantine elements. In this form, he proposed synagogues in Opava and Hungarian Debrecen. "None of these three buildings exist," Elbel says. Gartner built also residential houses, some of which are still in Olomouc. "He designed the new Gothic-style Pöttingen building. His work is also the villa of Eduard Hamburger on the corner of Viennas and Havlickovy Street. "