After a year and a half long of reconstruction work, the Spanish Synagogue of Prague will open for visitors on 16 December. The repairs, which cost tens of millions of Czech Crowns, expanded the exhibition space to more than 600 m2 and enabled barrier-free access to the three floors of the synagogue.
The new exhibition maps the last 200 years of the history of Jews in the Czech lands. The synagogue will continue to be used for evening programs, especially classical music concerts.
The history of the Czech and Moravian Jewish communities over the past two centuries will be showcased by a long-term exhibition including historical objects, documents, films and photographs.
According to the director of the Jewish Museum of Prague Leo Pavlát, a significant novelty of the exhibition is the attention he pays to the history of Jews from 1945 to 1989, but also in the following period.
The Spanish Synagogue is the youngest synagogue in the former Jewish town of Josefov in Prague. It is located on the corner of Dušní and Vězeňská streets.
The synagogue is owned by the Jewish community of Prague, which leases it to the Jewish Museum. Probably the oldest Prague synagogue from the 12th century, known as the Altschul, used to stand on the site of the current synagogue.
