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The Wysoka (High) Synagogue
During the height of Kazimierz's golden age a wealthy merchant, whom we know today only as Israel, approached King Sigismund Augustus about building a synagogue. Permission was granted and construction began in 1563.
We can only guess as to the reason behind the unique architectural design that placed the prayer hall on the second floor, above shops located on the ground floor. Perhaps the cramped confines of the Jewish district or simply the lack of free plots of land on which to build necessitated such a unique architectural solution. Professor Balaban writes that in order to make one's way to the prayer hall it was necessary to pass "through an utterly common hallway and up a rather rickety flight of stairs to reach the vestibule from which one entered the prayer hall". The hall is six or seven meters high (it takes up two entire floors of the building) with a barrel-vaulted ceiling with girding that extends from the pilasters on the north and south walls. The synagogue's rich furnishings were lost during the Swedish invasion in the 17th century. Items that were saved, replaced or restored in the years that followed were lost during World War II.
Pre-war accounts of the aron ha-kodesh indicate that it closed with double-doors that were crowned with the image of an eagle.
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A very tall menorah stood on the platform next to the ark. Additional light was provided many-branched brass candelabras.
The synagogue. Foto: J.J.
Today they synagogue stands as a shell of its former self though it retained its characteristic façade supported by the four buttresses in between which are located high arched windows. It was renovated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Afterwards, it was used as a studio for the municipal office of conservation, which remained there until the end of the 1990s.
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