After years of neglect, the dilapidated 19th-century synagogue building in the town of Koronowo in north-central Poland may be preserved and restored for use as a cultural center.
In the local newspaper Gazeta Pomorska, Adam Lewandowski writes that the municipality, which owns the building, applied in December for a grant to restore it. The estimated cost of the project would be 1 million zloty (approx $330,000).
A report drawn from the article, published on Virtual Shtetl, says that the plans call for renovation of the roof, the vault, the floor and stairs, as well as repairing and strengthening the walls, reconstructing the window and door frames and rebuilding windows that had been walled up.
Built in 1856, the synagogue, located near the market square, was turned into a warhouse during World War II and after the war used as a cinema and, in the 1990, a sports hall. Pictures may be see on the Virtual Shtetl page for the town.
The town’s Jewish cemetery was founded in 1817 and functioned until 1933. It was devastated during World War II. Today a couple of dozen stones remain. Local school children cleaned up the cemetery in 2007.