Experts from Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Great Britain will meet for a Herrenhausen Symposium at Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover to discuss the issue of reusing church buildings for the first time from a European comparative view. The intention is to develop new perspectives.
The target audience are persons responsible in church, monument preservation and politics, academics, members of educational institutions and all those interested in the topic. The symposium addresses an expanded public, convinced that churches are public buildings that ultimately belong to the public. An important aspect of the symposium is the involvement of young scientists and young professionals as well as society stakeholders or volunteers that are active in this field.
The discussions have relevance also for the adaptive reuse of synagogue buildings.
Click here to see details and program
A guided tour of the 17th century Jewish cemetery, which was largely destroyed in early 1960s and then in the 1980s when the Czech TV tower was built there. A large part of the cemetery was dug up, tombstones were knocked down and broken and the rest of the cemetery was filled in a turned into a park.
Though only a small part of the cemetery still exists, it covers a broad range of styles, from Baroque, Empire and Romantic to the common forms of the latter half of the 19th century. In 1999, the Jewish Museum in Prague took over the administration of the preserved part, which is a protected historical monument. Following essential structural repairs and basic restoration work, the cemetery was opened to the public in September 2001. The restoration of the tombstones continued and 164 tombstones and 4 tombs had been restored by the end of 2013.
The tiny rural synagogue in the village of Police u Jemnice, near the border with Austria, will be formally reopened after a two-year restoration carried out by the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic.
The synagogue will house a small exhibition on local Jewish life, and there also will be the launch of the brochure “Rural Synagogues in the Czech Lands,” by Jaroslaw Klenovsky.
For details about the restoration — and photos — CLICK HERE
Opening of an exhibition on 17th-18th century Baroque synagogues, organized in cooperation with the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Museum and Gallery in Prostějov, the Hanácký Jeruzalém association and the city of Prostějov.
As part of the European Heritage Days, there will be a guided tour of the exhibit Baroque Synagogues in the Czech Lands. The exhibition is complemented by panels mapping the history of Prostějov synagogues and Jewish prayer houses and the Prostějov Jewish community in general. During the guided tour, you will learn more about some of the exhibited objects. For example, part of the rosette stained glass window, which was saved from the destroyed Olomouc synagogue.
The exhibition is organized in cooperation with the Museum and Gallery in Prostějov, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Statutory City of Prostějov, the Respect and Tolerance Association, the Comenius Museum in Přerov and the Hanácký Jeruzalém Association. The guided tour will be the curator of the exhibition Filip Gregor from the Prostějov Museum.
Opening of an exhibition (running April 7-June 30, 2022) of objects found in the genizas in former synagogues in eastern Bohemia, with a particular focus on the synagogue in Luze.
The exhibition grows out of a geniza research project initiated by the Prague Jewish Museum in the 1990s.
The official reopening ceremony of the Great synagogue in Plzen, Czech Republic, following a three-year restoration of the synagogue interior and nearby Rabbi’s house. A permanent exhibition on Jewish monuments in the Pilsen region will be opened, in the women’s gallery. It is based on the photographs of Radovan Kodera.
A procession will bring a Torah scroll from the Old to the Great Synagogue and ceremoniously place it in the ark.
Following will be a ceremonial program with speeches by the Culture Minister, the head of the tiny local Jewish community, and others. A concert will feature compositions inspired by Jewish prayers, adapted for the occasion.
Jewish Country Houses and the Holocaust In History and Memory
This conference will investigate the fate in the Holocaust of Jewish country houses and the people who inhabited them. It will explore memory cultures that emerged afterwards and the Cold War context that shaped them. The conference will address and support curatorial, artistic, and narrative practices telling the difficult stories of genocide linked to these properties. As it does so, it will bring together academic historians, heritage professionals, and artists over three days at the Methodological Centre of Modern Architecture at the Villa Stiassni in Brno, Czech Republic. The built heritage of the Villa Stiassni, visits to the nearby villas Tugendhat and Löw-Beer, and an exploration of the experiences and memories of the Czech Jewish industrialist families who inhabited and fled from them will be an integral part of the conference.
After many decades, the synagogue and rabbinical house in Žatec will be ceremonially opened. Both monuments have undergone complete reconstruction in recent years and will now serve as a museum and cultural space.
The celebrations will include performances by the Žatec Occasional Choir and the Camerata children’s choir at the ZUŠ in Žatec.
Long empty and in deteriorating condition, the synagogue and rabbi’s house were bought in 2013 by Daniel Černý, who from 2019 oversaw a full-scale renovation of the buildings that was completed in 2022. Most of the €2 million costs of the project were covered with grants from the state and the EU.
The rescue and restoration of the synagogue won the Patrimonium pro futuro Award in the Monument Protection category.
NOTE: The program on March 22 will begin at 5 p.m.
After many decades, the synagogue and rabbinical house in Žatec will be ceremonially opened. Both monuments have undergone complete reconstruction in recent years and will now serve as a museum and cultural space.
The celebrations will include performances by the Žatec Occasional Choir and the Camerata children’s choir at the ZUŠ in Žatec.
Long empty and in deteriorating condition, the synagogue and rabbi’s house were bought in 2013 by Daniel Černý, who from 2019 oversaw a full-scale renovation of the buildings that was completed in 2022. Most of the €2 million costs of the project were covered with grants from the state and the EU.
The rescue and restoration of the synagogue won the Patrimonium pro futuro Award in the Monument Protection category.
NOTE: The program on March 22 will begin at 5 p.m.
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