The 17th century Great Synagogue in Orla, in eastern Poland, has been placed among the 14 threatened heritage sites in Europe that have been shortlisted for Europa Nostra’s 7 Most Endangered program for 2025.
“This nomination can make a difference in saving a crucial piece of local heritage that has the potential to make a real impact in the local community and its socio-economic development,” the Advisory Panel of the & Most Endangered said in a statement.
The Great Synagogue in Orla stands as a symbol of the complex, often difficult history of Polish lands, and represents today an impressive grassroots energy of Polish, Belarussian and Ukrainian residents who – at the absence of Jewish descendants exterminated during the Holocaust – unite above cultures, ethnicities and religions to bring this Jewish monument to its former glory. It is a symbol of the fate of the Jewish heritage after the Holocaust, but at the same time an instructive example of restoring memory.”
The Seven Most Endangered List will be announced at the end of March of beginning of April.
The synagogue is owned by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ), which last year also cooperated in the production of a Virtual Tour of the building.
The synagogue was built in the second quarter of the 17th century, FODZ writes on its web site, but archaeological research has revealed that a small wooden synagogue had stood in the same place earlier.
About 100 years after the foundation of the synagogue, women’s galleries were added on each side of the building: wooden at first, and then made of brick. The synagogue combines Renaissance and Baroque styles. In the 19th century, the building was given a classical facade with a frieze resting on two columns. Unfortunately, the furnishings of the synagogue, including the large aron ha-kodesh, have not survived. Still, preserved to this day are remnants of colourful polychrome wall paintings with vegetal and animal motifs, as well as four columns surrounding the place where the bimah stood. Before the war, the square in front of the synagogue was called the school square, and the synagogue complex also included two wooden houses of prayer, the rabbi’s house, and a mikveh. All the buildings burned down in a great fire that swept Orla in 1938.
As we posted back in September, fitful restoration has been going on since the 1980s, and the synagogue already hosts concerts and other events. The London-based Foundation for Jewish Heritage recently secured funding to enable FODZ to conduct a Feasibility Study “to test the concept of transforming the site into a centre for arts and education.”
At the end of last summer, FODZ posted a video on Facebook summarizing recent developments. It’s in Polish with English subtitles:
The 7 Most Endangered Programme is an awareness-raising program run by Europa Nostra in partnership with the European Investment Bank Institute. It also has the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. Launched in 2013, it forms part of a civil society campaign to save Europe’s endangered heritage. It provides a grant of €10,000 per listed site.
The Orla synagogue was nominated for the list by the Future for Religious Heritage network NGO.
The other 13 heritage sites on the short list include castles, churches, a swimming pool, modernist housing, railway structures, a theatre, industrial works, and gardens. Click here to see them.
Europa Nostra lobbies for monuments and heritage preservation, targets endangered sites and grants annual awards for restoration projects. It is a network of 250 member organizations across Europe, including heritage associations and foundations, plus 150 associated organizations (governmental bodies, local authorities and corporations) and also 1500 individual members.
Read the announcement of the shortlist on the Europa Nostra web site
Seven Most Endangered web site
Click here to take the Virtual Tour of the Synagogue