Description
The Synagogue of Trieste is the city's great Jewish temple, opened in 1912 on Piazza Giotti, in the Barriera Nuova district. It is among the largest in Europe, second in size only to the one in Budapest: a sign of how much the Jewish community mattered in Habsburg Trieste.
Outside it is a monumental building clad in concrete, in Sephardic style, with three different façades on Via Donizetti, Via San Francesco and Via Zanetti. Each has a rose window with the Star of David at its centre.
Inside, the large rectangular hall with three aisles is covered by a vault with a gilded mosaic, and the decoration shows Art Nouveau influences. The floor is a black-and-white mosaic, and the ceiling rises to a great dome with chandeliers and sacred inscriptions.
The hall faces the great Aron, the holy ark, with doors of gilded bronze. It is framed by two seven-branched candelabra standing on a marble parapet decorated with sheaves of hay, the symbol of Trieste's Jewish community.
The richest part is the atrium, separated from the hall by marble columns supporting the arches: the colours are brighter and the floor has circular patterns with the Star of David. On three sides runs the women's gallery, no longer used because the community has shrunk.
The complex is not just the great synagogue: it also includes a more frequently used oratory, the library, the community's offices and the ritual bath.
Before 1912 Trieste's Jews prayed in four small synagogues in the ghetto, in the Riborgo area. For the new temple an international competition was held in 1903, but none of the dozens of designs submitted won people over: the commission then went to the Trieste architects Ruggero and Arduino Berlam, father and son.
With the racial laws of 1938 the synagogue was closed, and during the German occupation the Nazis used it as a store for stolen books and works of art. The silver ritual objects were saved: they had been hidden inside the building itself.
Outside it is a monumental building clad in concrete, in Sephardic style, with three different façades on Via Donizetti, Via San Francesco and Via Zanetti. Each has a rose window with the Star of David at its centre.
Inside, the large rectangular hall with three aisles is covered by a vault with a gilded mosaic, and the decoration shows Art Nouveau influences. The floor is a black-and-white mosaic, and the ceiling rises to a great dome with chandeliers and sacred inscriptions.
The hall faces the great Aron, the holy ark, with doors of gilded bronze. It is framed by two seven-branched candelabra standing on a marble parapet decorated with sheaves of hay, the symbol of Trieste's Jewish community.
The richest part is the atrium, separated from the hall by marble columns supporting the arches: the colours are brighter and the floor has circular patterns with the Star of David. On three sides runs the women's gallery, no longer used because the community has shrunk.
The complex is not just the great synagogue: it also includes a more frequently used oratory, the library, the community's offices and the ritual bath.
Before 1912 Trieste's Jews prayed in four small synagogues in the ghetto, in the Riborgo area. For the new temple an international competition was held in 1903, but none of the dozens of designs submitted won people over: the commission then went to the Trieste architects Ruggero and Arduino Berlam, father and son.
With the racial laws of 1938 the synagogue was closed, and during the German occupation the Nazis used it as a store for stolen books and works of art. The silver ritual objects were saved: they had been hidden inside the building itself.