Documentation Project of Slovak Synagogue

Architecture

Synagoga Slovaca had been launched in summer 2001 as a joint-project of three Slovak institutions:

Institute of Jewish Studies

Comenius University

Slovak National Museum – Museum of Jewish Culture and the Faculty of Architecture, Slovak Technical University

It is a systematic, detailed documentation project, conducted by the local Slovak

institutions, with project results archived in Slovakia and thus allowing future

accessibility to the local public

Additionally, researching and promoting Slovak Jewish heritage, we are dedicated to be instrumental in setting longer term strategy of preservation of this endangered heritage.

Our methodology had been inspired by various researches by our colleagues, while adapting them to local conditions and shoestring budget.Two publications have been of prominent interest for us: Hammer Schenk’s opus magnum about the synagogue architecture in Germany and research of Hungarian synagogues conducted by Anikó Gazda et al. in Hungary during the 1980s.

Understanding the nature of the Slovak material, where over a hundred buildings had been physically preserved, but minimal archival documents available, we had to develop a strategy of obtaining full measurements and plans of these buildings.

Since our project means had been from the beginning very limited, we knew that it would be impossible to rely on work of professional architects.

Documentary part of project expanded in

several stages 1. Identification. This step was an important prolog; we have spent summer 2000 evaluating information available at the archive of the National Monument Office in Bratislava. We studied results of Bárkány’s survey from the 1960s and compared it with survey conducted by the National Monument Office during the 1990s. Reports of regional branches of the 1.     NMO are preserved in archive, though this research was never published. Based on this archive work, we compiled a list of over hundred synagogue objects spread through the entire territory of Slovakia.

2.    While planning visits to sites, we had to identify dozens of current owners, users or wardens of former synagogues. Negotiating free access had been a very delicate process.

3. Photographic documentation. Hundred-five synagogues and prayer halls have been systematically photo-documented in detail: for slides and digital images by Maroš Borský, while the museum photographer Viera Kamenická, an experienced documentarist of architectural monuments, photographed for prints . By now, we visited and photo-documented all identified buildings of former synagogues and prayer halls.

This task we divided into two field trips (summer 2001, summer 2002) with the team consisting of the photographer, Borský and two colleagues from abroad: Dr. Samuel D. Albert (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Dr. Janez Premk (Ljubljana University). In addition, objects we did not manage to document during these major campaigns, we visited with the photographer on numerous short trips from Bratislava and Košice.

  4. Further processing of field trip results. The buildings‘ architecture was analyzed and described, using on the spot sketches and photo-documentation. Thousands of print pictures taken by our photographer were scanned at the Museum for future digitalized archive.

5. Archive research. During the fall of 2005 we completed the archive research in Slovakia. Mostly searching for original building plans and historical documents, serving concrete attribution of buildings and exact dating, this stage of project was due to complicated conditions in post-Communist archives one of most difficult stages.

6. Research of historical images. For purpose of our knowledge about heavily altered or demolished synagogues, we had been in touch with numerous regional Slovak museums, important museums abroad and various private collectors.

In April 2006, we launched an online database of hundred-five documented synagogue buildings in Slovakia. The database presents rich documentation to numerous synagogues. The database will be in the future updated and enlarged to include documentation of ritual baths, Jewish school buildings, Holocaust memorials, selected cemeteries and other valuable Jewish heritage sites in Slovakia.

This presentation has been created by Marianna Kupčihová, Business

Academy, Levice, Slovakia