The World Monuments Fund has mounted an online exhibition about the history and architecture of the striking, art nouveau synagogue in Subotica, Serbia, which has been undergoing fitful — and as yet incomplete — restoration for decades.
With its striking domes, sinuous lines and opulent ornamentation, the synagogue, is one of the jewels of art nouveau architecture in Europe.
Completed in 1902, it was designed by Marcel Komor and Deszo Jakab, the Budapest-based architects who also designed other important local buildings including the Town Hall, with its soaring tower, and the lakeside resort of Palic (Palics) to the north of town.
In 1899, Komor and Jakab had submitted a virtually identical design in the competition for the great synagogue in nearby Szeged (at the time, both towns were in Hungary). They lost the Szeged competition to fellow Budapest architect Lipot Baumhorn, whose grandiose Neolog synagogue in Szeged was completed in 1903 — we posted in recent days about its own ongoing restoration, HERE and HERE.
The WMF put the synagogue on its “Watch List” of endangered historic buildings back in 1996, and again in 2000-2001, and Europa Nostra put it on its Seven Most Endangered List in 2014.
Over the past dozen years, the synagogue has been a priority project of the WMF and its Jewish Heritage Program, with funding from several donors. Focus has been on exterior work on the synagogue and its roof and, as we reported, the stained glass windows by Miksa Roth have been also under restoration.
The Hungarian government pledged €1.6 million toward finishing the restoration of the façade (now completed) and other exterior work, treatment of the landscape, fence and lighting, as well as the complete restoration of the synagogue’s interior.
According to the WMF, the synagogue is currently closed, and is expected to be closed for two years, while the interior work is carried out.
The Fund hopes to install a physical exhibition on the synagogue once the restoration work is complete, based on the online exhibition it has launched.
Click to access the online exhibition
See our post from 2014 with a series of pictures of the synagogue