Sofia Synagogue

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Sofia Synagogue

The Sofia Synagogue (Sofiyska sinagoga) is the largest synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
in Southeastern Europe, one of two functioning in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

The state of Bulgaria , Scientific transliteration Balgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria has played a significant role in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe for over fourteen centuries....
and one of the largest in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
.

Constructed for the needs of the Bulgarian capital Sofia

Sofia

Sofia , is the Capital and largest city of the Bulgaria, with 2,5 million people living in the Capital Municipality. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of the mountain massif Vitosha, and is the administrative, cultural, economic, and educational centre of the country....
's mainly Sephardic Jew

Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish community after a project by the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
n architect Friedrich Grünanger

Friedrich Grünanger

Friedrich Gr?nanger was an Austro-Hungarian architect who worked primarily in Bulgaria.Born in Sch??burg in Austria-Hungary , Gr?nanger studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna architecture school between 1877 and 1879, under Friedrich von Schmidt....
, it resembles the old Sephardic synagogue in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
and was officially opened on 9 September 1909 in the presence of Tsar

Tsar

Tsar or czar , occasionally spelled csar or tzar in English language, is a slavs term designating certain monarchs.Originally, the title Czar meant Emperor in the European medieval sense of the term, that is, a ruler who has the same rank as a Ancient Rome or Byzantine emperor due to recognition by another emperor or...
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

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The Sofia Synagogue (Sofiyska sinagoga) is the largest synagogue

Synagogue

Bulgaria

Europe

Sofia

Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish community after a project by the Austria

Austria

Friedrich Grünanger

Vienna

Tsar

Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

Ferdinand, Tsar of Bulgaria , born Prince Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was the Knjaz and later Monarch of Bulgaria as well as an author, botanist, entomologist and philatelist....
. The first preparations for the synagogue's construction date to 1903, while the construction itself had begun on 13 November 1905.

One of the architectural monuments of Sofia, the synagogue, located in the very centre of the city near the Central Market Hall

Central Sofia Market Hall

The Central Sofia Market Hall , known popularly simply as The Market Hall is a covered market in the centre of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, located on Marie Louise Boulevard....
, can accommodate 1,300 worshippers. The Sofia Synagogue's main chandelier

Chandelier

A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamp s and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refraction light....
weighs 1.7 ton

Ton

Units of massThere are several similar units of mass or volume called the ton:Others*The long ton is used for petroleum products such as aviation fuel....
s and is the largest in the country.

Despite the building's size, the services

Jewish services

Jewish services are the prayer recitations that form part of the observance of Judaism. These prayers, often with instructions and commentary, are found in the siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book....
are normally only attended by some 50 to 60 worshippers due to the aliyah
Aliyah

Aliyah refers to Jewish immigration to Greater Israel. The opposite action, Jewish emigration from Israel, is referred to as Yerida ....
of most of Bulgaria's Jews to Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
and the secularity

Secularity

Secularity is the state of being separate from religion. For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there is nothing inherently religious about them....
of the local Jewish population.

The architectural style is essentially Moorish Revival

Moorish Revival

Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist Orientalism....
, with elements of the Vienna Secession

Vienna Secession

The Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna K?nstlerhaus....
and, in the facade, Venetian

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
architecture. The main premise has a diameter of 20 m

Metre

The metre or meter is a Unit of measurement of length. It is the SI base unit of length in the metric system and in the International System of Units , used around the world for general and scientific purposes....
and is 31 m high. It is topped by an octagonal dome. The interior is richly decorated, featuring columns of Carrara

Carrara

Carrara is a city in the province of Massa-Carrara , famous for the white or blue-gray marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione river, some 100 km west-northwest of Florence....
marble and multicoloured Venetian mosaics, as well as decorative woodcarving. The entire building takes up 659 m²

Square metre

The square metre is the SI derived unit of area, with symbol m?. It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one metre....
.

Since 8 May 1992 the Sofia Synagogue also houses the Jewish Museum of History, which includes the Jewish Communities in Bulgaria and the Holocaust and the Salvation of the Jews in Bulgaria expositions. A souvenir shop is also in operation.

Sofia Synagogue

See also