Near the fire station in Tovární street in Hořice is the building of the former Jewish synagogue. Since 1956, it has been the prayer room of the Czech-Slovak Hussite Church. In Karlov, formerly Židovská street, we can also find an old Jewish cemetery.
Jewish Synagogue
The foundation stone for the foundation of the synagogue was laid in 1726 and the building was completed around 1730. It was a small wooden building covered with shingles, but it soon ceased to meet the needs of the growing community. Some ceremonies had to be performed outside under the open sky, which caused resentment among the Christian neighbors, and therefore already in 1764 the Jewish community requested permission to rebuild and expand the synagogue. In 1767, the construction of a new, larger and this time brick synagogue was started on the same site.
In 1859, the synagogue burned down together with the adjacent meat shops. After the fire, the building was restored, raised and provided with a tile roof. The adjacent house, which housed the old Jewish school and the rabbi’s apartment , was also repaired. For the 2nd St. war, the synagogue was closed and the valuables were taken to the Jewish Museum in Prague , whose collections today include 10 silver liturgical objects from the original inventory.
The most famous and popular rabbi was Dr. Adolf Ehrentheil , who worked in Hořice for 33 years and was highly respected. The last rabbi of Gorica was Adolf Mellion . After the 2nd St. After the Second World War, the Jews in Hořice no longer gathered to pray together, so the dilapidated building was purchased in 1952 by the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, which reconstructed it for the needs of its services. During this intervention, all elements of the original Jewish decoration were removed and the ancient Jewish school was demolished. Only the sandstone slabs with the Ten Commandments and part of the original pavement have survived from the original decoration. The new choir was named after Jan Žižka from Trocnov and inaugurated on June 10, 1956. The adjacent plot of land after the old school was transformed into a garden. The Hussite Church still uses the building for its services today.
Jewish cemetery
The first mentions of the Jewish cemetery come from 1748, it was probably established already in the previous century. Since Jewish property was often the target of attacks by vandals, a watchman’s house was built near the Jewish cemetery in 1776 to better guard this place. The house also housed a hospital and a morgue was located here.
The cemetery contains valuable tombstones from the 18th and 19th centuries , and according to chronicler Zwiefelhofer, there should also be several monuments from the Napoleonic Wars . Despite the repair, the old cemetery ceases to meet the requirements of modern funerals at the end of the 19th century, and the authorities insist on the establishment of a new cemetery. In 1896, the municipality buys land on the Gothard. On November 1, 1897, the cemetery was solemnly consecrated.
In 1933, the Jewish community sold part of the cemetery plot with the well to the Hořice municipality with the right of access to the well. With the money collected, they repaired the synagogue and the wall at the old cemetery. In the 1960s, the then city management decided to completely liquidate the Jewish cemetery. The graves were demolished and the valuable marble monuments sold off. In the 1990s, the cemetery land was returned to the Jewish community, but the graves could not be saved. The former Jewish prayer hall is today used as a funeral hall for civil burials .
Operator
Municipal information center Hořice
Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrady 3
508 01 Hořice
- Tel.:+420 492 105 432
- Email:infocentrum@horic…
- WWW:www.horice.org
- GPS:50.367599 15.632159
Region:Hradec Kralove region
Region:Podkrkonoší – Podzvičinsko
City:Mustard
Tips for a trip:Hořice and surroundings
Duration
1.0 hour
