Synagogue Of Guebwiller
History
A synagoga judeorum was mentioned in Guebwiller in 1333. The Jewish community of Guebwiller was wiped out by the 1349 Black Death pandemics. Forty Jews lived in Guebwiller in 1748, and the community developed until 1900. The current synagogue was built in 1872. It replaces an older building from the early 19th century, that had become too small. The synagogue was wrecked by the Nazis in 1940 and restored in 1957.
Guebwiller has been a rabbinate seat since 1910.
Now owned by an association, the synagogue was listed as a monument historique on July 16, 1984.
Architecture
This two-story synagogue was designed by architect Auguste Hartmann in 1869 and built in 1872 in the Romanesque Revival and Byzantine Revival styles. It has a nave, two aisles with six arcades. The nave is flanked with two turrets with pine corn representations. The two lateral walls of the nave have twelve window openings each; each aisle has five. The western portal of the building has red and blue paintings.
A rose is represented on the oculus of the Torah ark.
