Óbuda Synagogue

Andreas Landesherr

1820–1821

Photograph of building exterior with five columns. — The Óbuda Synagogue in Budapest is the oldest functioning synagogue in Hungary. The building was inaugurated in 1821. Its restrained, neoclassical aesthetic was consistent with popular architectural trends in nineteenth-century Hungary, distinguished only by Hebrew inscriptions on the outer façade of the building. The Jewish community of Óbuda, at the time of the synagogue inauguration, had some 3,210 Jews, which was more than forty percent of the local population. It was a “golden age” for the community; the synagogue, with its Corinthian columns, was heralded by the Archduke Joseph (1797–1847) as “undoubtedly the most beautiful one of all similar Jewish religious establishments in the Austrian monarchy.”

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Credits

Gross Family Collection.

Published in: Elisheva Carlebach, ed., The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6, Confronting Modernity, 1750–1880 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019).

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