The round synagogue on Somerton Road in Belfast, dedicated in 1964, has been listed as one of the city’s historic buildings.
It is one of 19 newly listed buildings for Belfast announced this week by the Northern Ireland Executive, which said the synagogue’s unique circular design “influenced modern synagogues across the UK.”
Designed by the architectural firm Yorke, Rosenberg, Mardell, the synagogue has ceiling beams that form a star of David — see also on the roof. There is no women’s gallery, but separate raised sections for women, separated from the main part of the sanctuary by a railing.
Speaking of all the listed buildings, Northern Ireland Executive Environment Minister Mark H. Durkan said in a statement: “The listing of these buildings is a welcome boost for this city. It recognises the rich and important cultural, historical and architectural tapestry of Belfast’s buildings. Some of the buildings now listed are familiar architectural gems in Belfast’s skyline. Others are much less prominent in our streetscape, but are very important because of their historical significance.”
See announcement and full list of newly listed buildings
1 comment on “N. Ireland: Belfast synagogue newly listed as historic building”
An important trans-Europe and trans-generational aspect of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation synagogue is that the designer was Slovak-Jewish war refugee Eugene Rosenberg (1907-1990) designed the Belfast. Like the Fritz Landauer who made it to England from Germany in the 1930s (but whose career languished), and Norbert Troller from Brno, who came to America after surviving Asuchwitz (but who mostly toiled for the Jewish Welfare board), Rosenberg carried the seeds of Central European Modernism to surviving Jewish (and other) communities and established a successful career as modernist, mostly building in the public and industrial sector, becoming one of the leading Jewish architects in post-war Europe (but there were not too many).
I have not been to Belfast, but have long been charmed by pictures of this building, certainly one of the most accomplished modern synagogues built in post-World War II Europe. The design of the Belfast synagogue is simple and elegant – quite the antithesis of the expressive form of the better known post-war synagogue in Livorno, Italy (Angelo di Castro, 1962) . The Belfast synagogue appears geometrically and technically challenging and precise. It is a tri-partite building, with a small glazed entrance, next to a drum-like sanctuary of gray textured concrete, with a few slit windows, that contains a hexagonal interior. Supporting piers on the building perimeter carry the interior concrete beams that in turn support the timber Star of David ceiling. The result is an impressive open interior with good acoustics, ample lighting from clerestory, and symbolic form.
You can read more about the Belfast Synagogue in Carol Herselle Krinsky, Synagogues of Europe, (New York and Cambridge, Mass.: Architectural History Foundation and MIT Press, 1985), 408-410; Sharman Kadish, The Synagogues of Britain and Ireland: An Architectural and Social History (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011), 241-243.