Dohány Street Synagogue (Dohány utcai zsinagóga in Hungarian) in Budapest is the largest synagogue in Europe with a capacity of 2,964 seats (1,492 for men on the ground floor and 1,472 in the women's galleries) and is a center of Neolog Judaism. Dohány means tobacco, BTW.
The synagogue was built between 1854 and 1859 in a residential area by the Jewish community of Pest. It was designed by a non-Jewish German-born Austrian architect, Ludwig Förster.
The building is 75 meters long and 27 meters in width. The style of the Dohány Street Synagogue is Moorish, mixed with Byzantine, Romantic, and Gothic flavors. The characteristic onion-shaped domes sit on the twin octagonal towers that are 43 meters in height. The Central Synagogue in Manhattan, New York City is a sort of copycat of the Dohány Street Synagogue.
Famous Hungarian romantic architect Frigyes Feszl designed the interior by giving the Torah-ark and colorful internal frescoes.
The Synagogue is comprised of the complex of the Great Synagogue, the Heroes' Temple, the graveyard, the Memorial, and the Jewish Museum, which was built on the site on which Theodor Herzl's house of birth stood. The 5,000-tube organ, which was built in 1859, makes the Synagogue very unique. Famous musicians such as Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns played there.
The Synagogue is comprised of the complex of the Great Synagogue, the Heroes' Temple, the graveyard, the Memorial, and the Jewish Museum, which was built on the site on which Theodor Herzl's house of birth stood. The 5,000-tube organ, which was built in 1859, makes the Synagogue very unique. Famous musicians such as Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns played there.
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The synagogue has gone through a tough time. On the 3rd of February, 1939 it was bombed by the Hungarian pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party. In 1944, the Dohány Street Synagogue was part of the Jewish ghetto for the city Jews, to where 7,000 Jews were sent, according to Adolph Eichmann's plan. Over two thousand of those who died in the ghetto from hunger and cold are buried in the courtyard of the synagogue.
The synagogue was also used as a shelter, and towards the end of World War II, the building suffered some severe damage from aerial raids during the battle for the liberation of Budapest.
During the Communist era, the damaged structure became again a prayer house for the much-diminished Jewish community. Its restoration and renovation started in 1991, financed by the state and by private donations, and was completed in 1998.
On 23 October 2012, an Israeli flag was burned in front of a Budapest synagogue, reportedly by members of Jobbik, an ultranationalist Hungarian political party.
The synagogue was also used as a shelter, and towards the end of World War II, the building suffered some severe damage from aerial raids during the battle for the liberation of Budapest.
During the Communist era, the damaged structure became again a prayer house for the much-diminished Jewish community. Its restoration and renovation started in 1991, financed by the state and by private donations, and was completed in 1998.
On 23 October 2012, an Israeli flag was burned in front of a Budapest synagogue, reportedly by members of Jobbik, an ultranationalist Hungarian political party.
