synagogues

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Brest Synagogues

The emblematic synagogue of Brest for the last 100 years was the old Great Synagogue, Di Groyseh shul, located near the center of the city:

Brest Old Great Synagogue
Di Groyser Shul.

The Old Great Synagogue was on Palitsejskaya (Savetskaya) Street [?].

Great Synagogue
after the fire of 1915.
Text: The Synagogue of the Israelites

In 1959, a circular glass facade was built around the the orginal six-sided stone shul. This is its appearance in 1999:

The Cinema Belarus.
Palitsejskaya (Savetskaya) Street.
Circa 1999

Although the most familiar, this was not the only synagogue in Brest.

The Former Green Synagogue

Former Green Synagogue, Brest
More about the site, here.

The Oldest Known Synagogue
Seventeenth-century Brest was located at the present site of the Brest fortress, to the south and west of today's city center. In 1657, the city was beseiged by Swedish forces. The artist/architect Erik Dahlberg (b.1625, d.1703) sketched his observations and later produced at least one engraving. This is a portion of The Siege of Brest:

The Siege of Brest, portion of an engraving by Erik Dahlberg. circa 1659

The building marked G slightly to the right of center is identified as Synagoguae Indeorum. This synagogue is said to have been built around 1569. It is described as a brick two-storied building with renaissance features. Histoire du regne de Charles Gustave roy de Suede : comprise en sept commentaires enrichis de tailles douces, by Freiherr Samuel von Pufendorf, published in Nuremburg in 1697 by Christophle Riegel.

Designed, Never Built
This synagogue was intended to be built in central Brest, at the corner of Topolowa and Jagiellonska streets:

Page Last Updated: 05-Nov-2010