The synagogue of Gorizia, in northeastern Italy, will undergo urgent renovation work thanks to a €250,000 grant from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. The building had been closed since 2020 due to security concerns.
The grant, announced in early July, aims to update the electrical and fire systems and remove architectural barriers. (At the same time region also granted nearly €250,000 to the Archeological Museum in nearby Romans d’Isonzo.)
The grant “underscores the significance of the synagogue of Gorizia, once referred to as the ‘Little Jerusalem on the Isonzo River,’ due to the vibrant cultural heritage of its Jewish community,” Diego Bernardis, a regional counselor from Gorizia Province and President of the Cultural Commission in the Regional Assembly, said on the Region’s web site.
It is a symbol of inestimable cultural and historical value, bearing witness to the richness and diversity of our community. The grant of €250,000 ensures the synagogue’s compliance with national regulations through extraordinary maintenance.
The grant comes within the context of Gorizia and neighboring Nova Gorica, across the border in Slovenia, jointly serving as the European Capital of Culture (ECC) for 2025.
As part of the bid book submitted by the initiative organizers, the synagogue, along with the Jewish cemetery located on the Slovenian side of the border, are included as a significant cultural monument.
The Gorizia synagogue, initially constructed in 1756, underwent a significant renovation in 1894 by the local Jewish community. However, in the 1960s, it was closed due to the decreased local Jewish population caused by the Holocaust.
Subsequently, in the 1980s, it was renovated again after being transferred to municipal ownership. It is currently administered by the “Friends of Israel” association and serves as a complex housing a Jewish museum, library, an exhibition of paintings by the Gorizia-born Jewish philosopher and intellectual Carlo Michelstaedter, and a small meeting hall.
The Visit Jewish Italy website describes the synagogue as follows:
Occupying the first and top floor is the hall of the synagogue, which is arranged according to the traditional bifocal layout, with the tevah and aron placed opposite each other on the short sides and benches for the public lining the longer walls and facing the central axis. Flanked by the two entrances to the hall, the tevah is a sober structure in cedar wood, raised and covered with a domed canopy with spiral columns. Along the back, slightly protruding over the wall of the hall, an inscription commemorates the synagogue’s narrow escape from destruction in 1761. On the opposite side is a marble aron hakodesh, also in Baroque style, featuring twisted columns in black marble and a high scrolled pediment with the Tables of the Law. Around the front of the aron are wrought iron railings, a late 18th-Century work attributed to the blacksmith Martin Geist.
In 1947, when the new border between Italy and then-Yugoslavia was drawn, Gorizia’s Jewish cemetery became part of Yugoslavia in a suburb of Nova Gorica called Rožna Dolina (Valdirose, in Italian).
Plans for its restoration have been in progress since 2016, as a project spearheaded by the Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy (FBCEI). In 2019, the Foundation received a grant of €125,000 from the Lichtenstein-based foundation Beneficentia Stiftung for this purpose. The restoration project, led by architect Andrea Morpurgo and coordinated by architect Renzo Funaro, is expected to cost €500,000.
Work at the cemetery has yet to start, however, as the FBCEI is currently awaiting permissions from Slovenian authorities. However, according to its web site, the project will entail:
— Archival and historical research on burials and other information
— Detailed mapping and topographical relief of the cemetery, with digitalization and creation of a database.
— On-site research to determine the presence of gravestones that remain hidden or buried under the surface.
— Analysis of vegetation/pests; removal of encroaching vegetation; regulating other vegetation.
— Documentation and cataloguing of gravestones and monuments; also assessing their state and restoration needs.
— Repair and rebuilding of the surrounding wall; repair or substitution of gates.
— Resetting and/or restoration of the gravestones.
Click here to see announcement of the grant on the Region’s web site
Read an article in the local media
Click here to read our 2017 article about the Jewish cemetery and Gorizia sites
Click here to read Gorizia and Nova Gorica bid for the European Capital of Culture 2025
Click here to access the FBCEI website dedicated to the cemetery restoration project
1 comment on “Italy: Gorizia synagogue receives €250,000 grant for urgent maintenance from Friuli Venezia Giulia Region”
Great news about the grant! In 2022, we visited both the synagogue in Gorizia (IT) and the cemetery across the border in Slovenia. Although, we couldn’t enter the sanctuary, it was moving to walk around the courtyard and see the plaque memorializing the youngest Holocaust victim of the town’s Jewish community, a baby boy.