REDISCOVER - Baumhorn 2020 - Remembering Lipót Baumhorn

22-07-2020

The series of Lipót Baumhorn's synagogues continues. After the Szeged Synagogue, his masterpiece Baumhorn planned more synagogues in the area of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

The synagogue of Cegléd with stylistic elements of the Art Nouveau style was inaugurated on 12 September 1902 and served the local community life in the first half of the 20th century. After the war, the community needed to sell the synagogue, which was bought by the Cegled council for sporting purposes. The contract of sale and purchase of the synagogue was concluded in April 1965. Since there was no Kristallnacht ("Crystal Night") in Hungary, the synagogues were not set on fire, and Baumhorn's synagogues also survived the war. But the posterity could hardly do anything with these orphaned, crumbling temples, and they were often exploited in an unworthy way.

 

The Synagogue in Brasov (in Hebrew: תית ישראל) is a neolog synagogue, still plays a ritual role, with a community seat and a kosher restaurant in the complex. The 657 square meter synagogue is a three-nave Neo-Gothic style building with Moorish elements. Stained-glass windows show the coat-of-arms of 32 Israeli cities. The façade vitrines present the sun, and the top of the roof represents the stone table of the Ten Commandments. The main aisle is separated by pillars from the side-aisles, these pillars hold balconies where women can sit.
In November 1940, the Iron Guard damaged the synagogue, smashing the vitrals, the furniture, and the organ. Until 1944 the building was used as a gym. In 2001, on the centenary of its opening, the synagogue was renovated. Because today's community is more orthodox than it used to be, the bane was moved to the center of the main ship by moving the benches and cutting them back. In October 2014, the synagogue was renamed to Beth Israel (House of Israel).

 

The first synagogue in Kaposvár was built in 1862. In the past, a building that accommodated 800 to 1,000 people turned out to be small, but there was never enough money to build a larger one, so they always just expanded the existing one. Its final form was acquired in 1906 according to the plans of Lipót Baumhorn.
In the late 1950s, a decision was made that the synagogue in Kaposvár - after standing in a "bad" place in the city – should be demolished. It was finally blown up on July 18, 1980. At that time, the building was no longer in the possession of the Jewish community, they sold it to the city in 1974.

 

Novi Sad Synagogue is one of many cultural institutions in Novi Sad, Serbia. The synagogue has been recognized as a historic landmark. It served the local Neolog congregation. The new synagogue, the fifth to be erected at the same location since the 18th century, became a major project for the entire Jewish community of Novi Sad, on which construction began in 1905 and was completed in 1909. Projected by Hungarian architect Baumhorn Lipót, it was part of a bigger complex of buildings that included on both sides of the synagogue two edifices decorated in a similar pattern: One building served as the Jewish school and other as offices of the Jewish community.
Currently, while the synagogue is not used for religious ceremonies, it is used for many cultural concerts and events.

 

In Musrka Sobota the first Jewish prayer room was established in the house known as Küčan's. In 1908, Lipót Baumhorn was brought in to design a new synagogue. The result was a picturesque building typical of Hungarian Jewish temples that drew heavily on Moorish and Oriental designs. After the war, the synagogue found itself without a congregation, and the newly installed Communist regime – mostly hostile to religion --, decided to demolish the temple. It was torn down in 1954 and replaced with an apartment building.

To be continued...

Programme co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA, ENI)