The city of Timisoara — Europe’s “Capital of Culture” in 2023 — has allocated around €120,000 toward the safeguarding and/or restoration of two historic synagogue buildings.
The grant of 600,000 lei — around €121,000 — came within a total grant package of 2.85 million lei (around €576,000) toward restoration work on historic religious buildings in the city — Orthodox Christian, Greek Catholic, and Roman Catholic churches as well as the Fabric and Cetate (Citadel) synagogues.
An announcement this week from the municipality said the new grant would go toward safeguarding the Fabric synagogue — designed by Lipot Baumhorn and built between 1897 and 1899 — which has long stood derelict and in deteriorating condition. This appears to mean stabilising the building pending further much-needed restoration work.
It will also go toward the ongoing artistic interior restoration being carried out in the Cetate (Citadel) synagogue. The synagogue was rededicated last year after partial renovation and returned to the Jewish community for use as a house of worship nearly 40 years after it closed for religious use.
“In the context of the year of the European Capital of Culture and respecting the landscape rich in diversity, places of worship are part of the local heritage of which we are proud,” the announcement said.
Last year, the Fabric Synagogue and other Jewish heritage in Timisoara were included on the 2022 World Monuments Watch: a list compiled by the World Monuments Fund of 25 heritage sites around the world deemed at particularly high risk.
Read the announcement of the new grant from the city
Read our post about the WMF Watch List and the Fabric Synagogue
Read our post about the rededication of the Citadel synagogue
Read our Have Your Say article about the Fabric Synagogue