The city of Vilnius has demolished the nursery school that was built in the 1960s atop the destroyed Great Synagogue of Vilna, clearing the way for development of the Great Synagogue and Mikvah complex as a heritage site.
The two-week demolition job commenced on August 18. The school had been closed down for many years.
The remains of the destroyed Great Synagogue and mikvah were declared a state-protected cultural heritage site of national significance in 2023. The remains of the complex, which dates from the 17th century, have been revealed via archaeological excavations over the past 14 years.
The decision to demolish the school building “was taken to open up and preserve the historically and culturally important territory – the complex of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius and Mikvė, included in the Register of Cultural Property and declared as a state-protected object of national significance for cultural heritage,” the city said on its web site.
The archaeology of the site began in 2011 with a preliminary excavation, followed by a Ground Penetrating Radar Survey in 2015 and full excavation seasons starting in 2016. The project is partnered and sponsored by a variety of Lithuanian, Israeli, and American institutions.
The Great Synagogue was built in the early 1600s in Renaissance-Baroque style. It became the center of Jewish life in Vilnius (Vilna), towering over the Shulhoyf, a teeming complex of alleyways and other Jewish community buildings and institutions including 12 synagogues, ritual baths, the community council, kosher meat stalls, the Strashun library, and other structures and institutions.
It was ransacked and torched by the Nazis in World War II; in 1955-57 the postwar Soviet regime tore down the ruins and in 1964 built the nursery school on the site.
There have been ongoing discussions for years on what to do with the site and how to commemorate the building.
“We can only thank the leadership of the present Vilnius Municipality for the removal of the deplorable eyesore that desecrated the memory of the Jews of Vilna and Lithuania for six decades,” the Vilna Great Synagogue and Shulhoyf Research Project said in a Facebook post that also showed photos of the demolished school. “The Great Synagogue of Vilna was one of the cathedrals of Vilnius and we can only hope that whatever is constructed there gives proper homage and respect to what was lost.”
Read the city’s announcement of the demolition on its web site
Access the web site on the archaeology at the site of the Great Synagogue complex
We have posted frequently about the archaeological work at the Great Synagogue site. Click HERE for a 2023 post with a link to others.