The Belarusian Jewish Cultural Heritage Center (BJCH) has created a virtual reconstruction of the Great Synagogue in Wolpa, an elaborate wooden structure believed to have dated from the first half of the 18th century, which — like hundreds of other wooden synagogues in eastern Europe — was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II.
The project is available both as a VR application for virtual reality headsets on the Meta platform and also in a web format on the BJCH website.
Available options, the BJCH states, include a “virtual guided audio tour and free exploration mode, enabling users to navigate the building, examine the interior and exterior in detail, and access comprehensive descriptions of individual elements.” The audio guide is available in English, Russian, and French.
Wolpa, located in present-day Belarus, was first mentioned in the 15th century as a small town within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Over time, it became part of the Kingdom of Poland and, in the late 16th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The virtual reconstruction project is a part of a larger multimedia initiative — Belarus Shtetl — which aims to virtually reconstruct several significant synagogues in Belarus. Launched in 2020, it also serves as the foundation for a future Virtual Jewish Museum of Belarus.
The virtual reconstruction of the Wolpa Synagogue, including its wall paintings and architectural details, was carried out by a team of curators, historians, artists, restorers, 3D designers, and IT engineers, with expert support from the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. . The project curator is Grigoriy Kheifets. The Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris (MAHJ), which houses a wooden model of the Wolpa Synagogue in its permanent collection, acted as a partner of the project,. which also received support from French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The project combines archival data, classical hand-drawing restoration techniques, and high-tech modeling to achieve maximum accuracy, the BJCH says.
[T]he team devoted nearly a year to detailed modeling of the building and creating a 15-minute virtual tour that showcases the synagogue during its existence from the 18th to the 19th century.
Research conducted during the project’s preparatory phase “revealed that the synagogue underwent major renovations in the 1920s,” the BJCH said.
The project team thus “decided to recreate two versions of the interior, allowing users to witness the synagogue’s transformation over time through a ‘time switch’ feature. Visitors can also be transported to the present day to see the physical site where the Wolpa Great Synagogue once stood.”
Click for the Virtual Reconstruction page with links
Here’s a Video Screencast from the 3D Tour
Here’s a Video Screencast from the VR Tour (in VR headset)
NOTE: a physical replica of the Wolpa synagogue was built some years ago in the town of Bilgoraj, part of a commercial/cutural/educational project. Click here to see a post about our visit there in 2016