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Hartmanice Mountain Synagogue
The highest synagogue in the Czech Republic, an important cultural center of the region. One of the few preserved Šumava synagogues, of which there were around sixty in the region a hundred years ago.
The Hartmanice-Kundrat Jewish community decided to build a synagogue in 1881, and already in 1884, almost 200 Jewish residents from Hartmanice and the surrounding area were using the newly built synagogue.
The house to the right of the synagogue served as a Jewish school and the rabbi's apartment.
In 1938, the Nazis closed the synagogue and turned it into a carpentry workshop. The entire gable above the main facade was torn down and many other insensitive alterations were made.
The gradual devastation of the synagogue continued even after the war, among other things it also served the army as a tire warehouse. The building was slated for demolition in the 1980s, fortunately it did not happen until November 1989.
The devastated synagogue was returned to the Jewish religious community in Pilsen, which offered it for sale. Owners changed, necessary repairs were not carried out. In 2002, the Prague publisher and journalist Michal Klíma bought the building, who founded the civic association Památník Hartmanice for the purpose of its restoration.
In 2006, the synagogue was ceremonially reopened.
There are interesting exhibitions to see in the synagogue:
The Hartmanice-Kundrat Jewish community decided to build a synagogue in 1881, and already in 1884, almost 200 Jewish residents from Hartmanice and the surrounding area were using the newly built synagogue.
The house to the right of the synagogue served as a Jewish school and the rabbi's apartment.
In 1938, the Nazis closed the synagogue and turned it into a carpentry workshop. The entire gable above the main facade was torn down and many other insensitive alterations were made.
The gradual devastation of the synagogue continued even after the war, among other things it also served the army as a tire warehouse. The building was slated for demolition in the 1980s, fortunately it did not happen until November 1989.
The devastated synagogue was returned to the Jewish religious community in Pilsen, which offered it for sale. Owners changed, necessary repairs were not carried out. In 2002, the Prague publisher and journalist Michal Klíma bought the building, who founded the civic association Památník Hartmanice for the purpose of its restoration.
In 2006, the synagogue was ceremonially reopened.
There are interesting exhibitions to see in the synagogue:
- Exposition on Czech-German-Jewish coexistence in Šumava.
- Villages in Šumava liquidated by communists after 1948.
- The fate of the Jewish community and synagogue in Hartmanice.
- Šumava in old photographs from the collection of Pavel Scheufler.
- History and reconstruction of the synagogue
(c) Text & foto: ŠumavaNet.CZ