The former Great Synagogue in Kupiškis, long used as a public library, has been reopened after six years of renovation and reconstruction work that brought back its original appearance.
The building was formally opened in March, at a ceremony attended by local and Jewish officials, the Israeli ambassador, and other VIPs.
During the reconstruction, the city’s web site states, the synagogue “got its former pre-war architectural size and shape. Authentic polychrome decoration has been uncovered in the hall.”
According to the Synagogues in Lithuania: A Catalogue (and the Center for Jewish Art), the synagogue is believed to have been built in the 18th century. By the late 19th century, Jews made up more than 70 percent of the town’s population, and the Great Synagogue formed part of a shulhoyf with two other, smaller, synagogues.
The building was gutted and all but destroyed during WW2. Under Soviet rule after the war, it was reconstructed for use as a cultural centre and then the library, which has functioned there since 1984.
© “Synagogues in Lithuania: A Catalogue” Archives, Photographer: Červiakov, Vitalij, 2006
The postwar reconstruction altered the form of the building, adding a mansard roof and totally changing the interior.
The new reconstruction restored the original form — with a peaked roof over a red brick facade.
The library includes a memorial dedicated in 2004 to the local Jews killed in the Holocaust.
It also now includes an exhibition on local Jewish history on the upper floor, and currently an exhibition of photos that show how the internal spaces of the library changed during the reconstruction.
Read an article about the opening on the Panevėžys Jewish Community webpage