Wołpa Synagogue

Former synagogue in Vowpa, Belarus

Wołpa Synagogue

The former Wolpa Synagogue, 1920, Second Polish Republic

Religion
Affiliation| Judaism (former)
Ecclesiastical or organisational status| Synagogue (–1940s)
Status| Destroyed
Location
Location| Vowpa
Country| Belarus

The former synagogue in what is now Belarus

Geographic coordinates| 53°21′52″N 24°21′57″E﻿ / ﻿53.3644°N 24.3657°E﻿ / 53.3644; 24.3657
Architecture
Type| Synagogue architecture
Style| Vernacular
Completed| c. 1643
Destroyed| November 1942; during World War II
Materials| Timber

The Wołpa Synagogue was a synagogue located in the town of Vowpa, in what is now western Belarus.[1] It was reputed to be the "most beautiful" of the wooden synagogues of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth,[1] a "masterwork" of wooden vernacular architecture.[2]

## History

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The synagogue was built in c. 1643,[3] and altered in minor ways several times. In 1929 the building was listed as a Polish Monument of Culture. It was burnt by the Germans during the World War II,[4]: 362–70  believed to be in November 1942.[5]

## Architecture

[edit]

Bimah in the Wolpa Synagogue, 1845 Replica in Biłgoraj, Poland

The main hall was 13 by 12.8 metres (43 by 42 ft) with a vaulted ceiling described as having been "the most magnificent of all known wooden ceilings" in Europe.[4]: 64  Of course, since Christians were free to build with brick and stone, few European buildings of the scale of the Wolpa synagogue were ever built in wood. The walls of the main hall were 7.2 meters high. The vaulting, under a three-tiered roof, rose to a height of fourteen meters in three tiers marked by fancy balustrades. Each tier was made up of several curving sections faced in wooden paneling to form a graceful, tiered and vaulted dome. The vaulted ceiling was supported by the four wooden corner columns that rose from the bimah, and by trusses in the roof.[4]: 362–70

The Torah Ark was an elaborate, multi-tiered confection in painted, carved wood, with columns, bas-relief menorahs, vases, floral swags, roofed towers, the tablets of the Ten Commandments and an eagle.[4]: 362–70

In the early nineteenth century, the vaulted ceiling was painted in a "dark sapphire" color spangled with "glistening" gold stars. The walls were painted in naive Trompe-l'œil style to resemble a Classical masonry building.[4]: 362–70  Polish Jewish communities were routinely denied permission to build in masonry.[6]

The exterior featured a three-tiered roof and a pair of elaborate corner pavilions with two-tiered roofs over elaborate vaulted ceilings.[4]: 362–70

In 1997, the Yiddish Book Center on the campus of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, the world's largest repository of Yiddish books and literature, chose to model its building on existing photographs of the Wolpa Synagogue.

In 2015, an exact replica of Wolpa Synagogue was built in Biłgoraj, Poland.

In 2024, the VR reconstruction of the Wolpa Synagogue was released by the Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center. The project features hand-restored paintings based on extensive academic research. The virtual reconstruction includes two versions of the interior: before and after renovation in 1920s, and shows a 360-degree view of the present-day location. [7]

Virtual reconstruction of the Wolpa synagogue. Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Herselle Krinsky, Carol; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1985). Synagogues of Europe: Architecture, History, Meaning. Dover Publications. pp. 225 ff.
2. ^ Hubka, Thomas C. (2003). Resplendent Synagogue: Architecture and Worship in an Eighteenth Century Polish Community. Brandeis University Press. p. 63.
3. ^ Bersohn, Mathias (1903). Grunwald, M. (ed.). "On Old Wooden Synagogues in Poland" (PDF). Warsaw: Society for Jewish Studies. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
4. ^ a b c d e f Piechotka, Maria; Piechotka, Kazimierz (2004). Heaven’s Gate: Wooden Synagogues in the Territory of the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Warsaw: Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wydawnnictwo Krupski I S-ka.
5. ^ Farran, Bill (2023). "Volpa, Belarus - Original Linocut". Lost Treasures: The Wooden Synagogues of Eastern Europe: The Artwork of Bill Farran. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
6. ^ Wischnitzer, Rachel (1964). The Architecture of the European Synagogue. Philadelphia: JPS. p. 127.
7. ^ bjch.center/shtetlwolpa/eng

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Synagogue in Voŭpa.

* The synagogue of Wołpa, Virtual Shtetl 2010
* Wooden Synagogue in Voupa (Volpa, Wołpa), Belarus in the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art, the Center for Jewish Art, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

* v
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* e

History of Jews and Judaism in Belarus

Groups|

| Orthodox|

* Misnagdim
* Musar Movement
* Hasidim
* Chabad-Lubavitch
* Karlin
* Lechovitch
* Koidanov
* Slonim
* Amdur

|

Secular|

* Haskalah
* Bundism
* General Jewish Labour Bund

Zionist|

* Poale Zion
* Komverband
* Jewish Communist Party
* Hashomer Hatzair
* Tarbut

Synagogues|

| Current|

* Great Synagogue (Grodno)

|

Former|

* Choral Synagogue (Brest)
* Choral synagogue (Vitebsk)
* Cold Synagogue, Minsk
* Cold Synagogue, Mogilev
* Slonim Synagogue
* Wołpa Synagogue
* Zaniomanskaja Synagogue

Yeshivas|

* Baranovich Yeshiva
* Grodno Yeshiva
* Kaminetz Yeshiva
* Mir Yeshiva
* Novardok Yeshiva
* Radin Yeshiva
* Slutsk-Kletsk Yeshiva
* Volozhin Yeshiva
* Tomchei Tmimim − Lubavitch

The Holocaust|

| Ghettos|

* Brest
* Grodno
* Dzyatlava
* Kobryn
* Lakhva
* Minsk
* Rakaŭ
* Pinsk
* Slonim

|

Concentration camps|

* Davidovka concentration camp
* Koldichevo

Extermination sites and massacres|

* Bronna Góra
* Dzyatlava massacre
* Maly Trostenets
* Slutsk affair

Resistance|

* Bielski partisans
* Łachwa Ghetto uprising
* Słonim Ghetto Jewish revolt
* Minsk Ghetto resistance organization
* Zhetler Battalion

* Timeline of Jewish history in Lithuania and Belarus
* List of Belarusian Jews

* v
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Wooden synagogues

Notable synagogues|

* Alanta
* B'nai Israel (Woodbourne, New York)
* Bershad
* Bush Street
* Cold (Mogilev)
* Gwoździec
* Hunter
* Jedwabne
* Jewish Center of the Hamptons
* Końskie
* Nasielsk
* Nomer Tamid
* Pioneer
* Pohrebyshche
* Przedbórz
* Trakai Kenesa
* Ulster Heights
* Wołpa
* Zabłudów
* Zaniomanskaja

Lists|

* List of wooden synagogues

*[c.]: circa
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