The recently completed restoration of the synagogue in Budyně nad Ohří, a small town around 50 km north of Prague, near the Terezin Memorial, is up for a national heritage award — and you can vote for it online as one part of the competition.
The synagogue restoration is one of nearly two dozen projects nominated for the Patrimonium Pro Futuro award, presented by the Culture Ministry’s National Institute Monuments Institute. It honours “positive and successful initiatives in the field of monument preservation completed in the previous year.”
Experts choose the main prize — but the awards also include a Public Thanks Monuments Award — for which people can cast their votes online.
Click here to vote for the synagogue! (click the button and then fill in your email address so you can get confirmation) You can also see details and before and after pictures at that link.
Or — to vote but also see all the nominees — click HERE, then scroll down to the entry for the synagogue and click the red button (Hlasovat).
We posted about the restoration, with a gallery of photos, in February, when the town’s mayor guided JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber on a visit.
The city owns the building and carried out the restoration, with around 90 percent financing from the EEA/Norway funds. The restoration began in 2019 — click here to read one of our posts about it.
Recognised as a cultural monument by the Czech Ministry of Culture, the synagogue was originally built as a wooden structure in the early 18th century and was rebuilt in brick in the early 19th century, in late classicist style with a late rococo facade. It was used for services until the community was annihilated in the Holocaust. After the war it was used as a warehouse and fell into disrepair.
The restoration of the synagogue in Zatec won the Patrimonium pro futuro Award in 2023 in the Monument Protection category.
Presented by the Culture Ministry’s National Monuments Institute, the Awards, established in 2014, honour “positive and successful initiatives in the field of monument preservation completed in the previous year.”
See our February post and photo gallery on the synagogue in Budyně nad Ohří
See our January post about the restoration
Web site of the synagogue and restoration project, with photo galleries documenting the process