Gwoździec Synagogue, Galicia

The wooden synagogue in Gwozńdziec, eastern Galicia (modern-day Ukraine), was one of more than two hundred wooden synagogues that existed in Poland before World War II. Such synagogues were popular because of the low cost and great availability of wood. Built in the mid- to late seventeenth century (some date the structure to 1640, although inscriptions inside it and at the entrance record the years 1686 and 1717 respectively), the Gwozńdziec Synagogue is fifteen meters (nearly fifty feet) high with a double roof. Inside the humble wooden structure is a richly decorated interior. The walls and ceiling of the stepped vault above the prayer hall are covered in murals containing floral patterns, zoological motifs, and text panels surrounded by borders. According to the inscriptions, these murals were painted in 1729 by two artists: Israel ben Mordecai and Isaac ben Judah Leib ha-Kohen, both from Jaryczów, Lwów district. Although the synagogue was destroyed, artists and scholars created a reconstruction based on extensive documentation from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (a documentary film, Raise the Roof, followed this project).