Subotica Synagogue

Jakab and Komor Square Synagogue in Subotica Serbian: Sinagoga na trgu Jakaba i Komora, Subotica Hungarian: Jakab és Komor téri zsinagóga, Szabadka
File:Синагога у Суботици.JPG Subotica Synagogue in 2008
Basic information
Location	Subotica-Szabadka, Jakab and Komor Square
Affiliation	Neolog Judaism
Year consecrated	1901
Architectural style	Hungarian art nuovo
General contractor	Komor Marcell & Jakab Dezső
Completed	1903

The Jakab and Komor Square Synagogue in Subotica is a remarkable Hungarian Art Nouveau synagogue in Subotica, Serbia. It was built in 1901-1902 during the administration of the Kingdom of Hungary (part of Austria-Hungary), according to the plans of Marcell Komor and Dezső Jakab replacing a smaller and less elaborate synagogue. It is one of the finest surviving pieces of religious architecture in the art nouveau style. It served the local Neolog community.

In 1974 the synagogue was designated a Monument of Culture; in 1990 it was designated a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance, and it is protected by Republic of Serbia.

The synagogue has long been plagued by conservation issues, though a decade-long partnership between the government and World Monuments Fund that ended in 2010 rendered the building watertight after years of water infiltration. Work on the restoration of the facades is the next phase of work on the synagogue.

Overview

The synagogue of Subotica is the only surviving Hungarian art nouveau Jewish place of worship in the world. Erected by a prosperous Jewish community of some 3000 souls between 1901 and 1903, it highlights the double, Hungarian-Jewish identity of its builders, who lived in a multi-ethnic, but predominantly Catholic city, which was the third largest of the Hungarian Kingdom and the tenth largest of the Habsburg Empire.

The community has hired a not yet established tandem of Hungarian art nouveau architects from Budapest, Dezső Jakab and Marcell Komor, who would later make a great imprint on the architecture of Subotica and Palić, the resort town near the city. The architects were ardent followers of Ödön Lechner, the father of Hungarian art nouveau style architecture, and later partisans of this movement, which unified Hungarian folklore elements with some Jewish structural principles and sometimes even Jewish motifs.

Besides lending the synagogue a distinct double identity in architectural terms, Jakab and Komor created a new space-conception of synagogue architecture in Hungary and deployed modern steel structure as well as an advanced technique of vaulting. Unlike period synagogues in Hungary that featured a predominantly basilical arrangement with a nave and two aisles, with or without a dome, this synagogue achieves a unified, tent-like central space under the sun, painted in gold on the apex of the dome. The women’s gallery and the dome are supported by four pairs of steel pillars covered with gypsum with a palm leaf relief. The large dome is a self-supporting, 3-5 centimeters thin shell-structure, formed in the spirit of Hungarian folklore. While many other synagogues have utilized light structures, they usually mimicked traditional arches and vaults. The novelty of this synagogue is the sincere display of modern structure and modernity in general, of which Jews have been important advocates and generators.

The synagogue is currently undergoing extensive restoration with the west exterior of the building now complete.

Visitors wishing to view the interior should apply at the Tourist Information Centre located at the back side of the City Hall, a large art nouveau structure also designed by Dezső Jakab and Marcell Komor.

See also

• Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance
• Tourism in Serbia
• Jews in Serbia

External links

• Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/synagogue24000
• http://www.zsinagoga.com
• http://www.duke.edu/religion/graphic/subotica.html
• http://www.bh.org.il/swj/general.php?places=31&language=1