Europa Nostra and the European Investment Bank Institute have place the historic synagogue of Orla, in eastern Poland, on the 2025 List of the Seven Most Endangered Monuments and Cultural Heritage Sites in Europe.
Launched in 2013, the 7 Most Endangered Programme forms part of a civil society campaign to save Europe’s endangered heritage. It provides a grant of €10,000 per listed site. It is run by Europa Nostra in partnership with the European Investment Bank Institute and also has the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
In addition to the Orla synagogue, the 2025 Seven Most Endangered list includes: the Arakelot monastery and settlement in Armenia, the castle in Nyborg, Denmark, the castle in Monemvasia in Greece, the modernist Generalštab complex in Belgrade, the swimming hall in Gothenburg, and Victoria Tower Gardens in London.
“The seven sites were selected on the basis of their heritage significance and cultural value, as well as on the basis of the serious danger that they are facing,” the organizers said in an announcement.
The level of engagement of local communities and/or the commitment of public and private stakeholders to saving these sites were considered as being of crucial added value. Another selection criterion was the potential of each of the sites to act as a driver of sustainable socioeconomic development. […] Being on the list of the 7 Most Endangered serves as a catalyst for action and as an incentive for mobilisation of the necessary public or private support. Ultimately, the listing helps raise awareness; it also fosters the sense of European identity and the feeling of belonging to a wider European community.
The synagogue has been owned since 2010 by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ), which intends to establish an art and education centre there. It was nominated for the Seven Most Endangered list by the Future for Religious Heritage network NGO. Last year FODZ also cooperated in the production of a Virtual Tour of the building.
The Orla 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.”
“We recently carried out security work in the synagogue. We are looking for partners and funds to renovate the building and adapt it to a new function,” Piotr Puchta, general director of FODŻ., said in a statement.
Activists from Orla, including Mayor Marek Chmielewski, Dariusz Horodecki, Andrzej Puchalski and Krzysztof Renik also work with FODZ on the synagogue. This summer the synagogue will anchor the festival “Shalom Despite Everything”, which will take place on July 25-27, 2025.
“I am convinced that in the future our synagogue will be known not only in Podlasie [distrtict], but also throughout Europe and the world,” Mayor Chmielewski said.
Michael Mail, Chief Executive of FJH, added, ‘Orla synagogue is one of the most important synagogue buildings in Poland that survived WW2. It stands as a moving memorial and testimony to a Jewish community that was lost in the Holocaust. This makes its preservation all the more significant. This recognition by the 7ME programme will help to ensure a new future for the site.’
Read the announcement from Europa Nostra
Read the announcement on the FODZ web site