Висока синагога High synagogue

Rating 8110

The High Synagogue was the third prayer house in the Jewish Kazimierz (before it were the Old and New Synagogues). Built after 1556, but not later than 1563. It got its name because the prayer hall was located on the second floor. This unusual position of the prayer house was dictated by security requirements: the synagogue stood in a crowded place at the gates of the Jewish city, near Christian territory. In the late 1880s, part of the synagogue became men's and women's prayer rooms, which were located on the second floor of a neighboring house. During the German occupation, the synagogue was looted. Since 1966, the building has housed restoration workshops of architectural monuments. Only fragments of the interior have survived: the stone frames of the altar cabinet and the remains of paintings with prayer texts, which were discovered and restored in the 1960s.