This is the Synagogue in Fabric, one of the most beautiful (of the many extraordinarily beautiful) buildings in Timisoara. It was completed in 1899 and was designed by Lipot Baumhorn, a noted architect of synagogues (and other buildings) from Budapest. (There is a very moving description by the travel writer
Ruth Ellen Gruber about uncovering his grave in Budapest: when she found the gravestone, she discovered it recorded a list of the synagogues he had designed, as well as a bas relief of his masterpiece in Szeged.) Though the synagogue is now hard to see, it originally faced a small canal and must have been beautifully situated. (This area of Timisoara was apparently a "little Venice," with many small canals, all of which have since been filled.)
It is a beautifully detailed "moorish" building. But I wasn't even sure it was the Synagogue until I found the lettering over one of the doors.
It is now sadly in very bad decay, one of the most endangered buildings in Timisoara. The wood is rotting and it's covered in fungus. No entry at all.
The facade is falling off (you can pick up shards from the ground below).
But the intricacies of its design are still apparent.
This is the Synagogue in Fabric, one of the most beautiful (of the many extraordinarily beautiful) buildings in Timisoara. It was completed in 1899 and was designed by Lipot Baumhorn, a noted architect of synagogues (and other buildings) from Budapest. (There is a very moving description by the travel writer Ruth Ellen Gruber about uncovering his grave in Budapest: when she found the gravestone, she discovered it recorded a list of the synagogues he had designed, as well as a bas relief of his masterpiece in Szeged.) Though the synagogue is now hard to see, it originally faced a small canal and must have been beautifully situated. (This area of Timisoara was apparently a "little Venice," with many small canals, all of which have since been filled.)
It is a beautifully detailed "moorish" building. But I wasn't even sure it was the Synagogue until I found the lettering over one of the doors.
It is now sadly in very bad decay, one of the most endangered buildings in Timisoara. The wood is rotting and it's covered in fungus. No entry at all.
The facade is falling off (you can pick up shards from the ground below).
But the intricacies of its design are still apparent.
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