Łańcut Synagogue
Synagoga w Łańcucie
Interesting facts
- By 1884 about 1,400 Jews lived in Łańcut, roughly 40 percent of the town's population.
- The Hasidic master Elimelech of Lizhensk lived in Łańcut from 1770 to 1772, and from 1790 Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz, later the Seer of Lublin, served there.
- The names of the donors who paid for each painted panel are recorded along its borders.
- The oldest Hebrew prayers and psalms on the walls, on the east side, date from the 18th century, with more added in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Gravestones recovered after the Second World War from Łańcut's destroyed Jewish cemeteries now stand in the synagogue's vestibule.
- A wooden prayer room once adjoined the north wall; it was lost in the war, but sockets for its ceiling beams are still visible outside.
- A watercolour of 1797 documents the women's gallery above the vestibule, whose walls were later raised to the height of the main hall.
- After a superficial renovation in the 1960s, the building was thoroughly restored between 1983 and 1990.
Why it is worth it
Behind a plain Baroque exterior, the former synagogue of Łańcut holds one of the most richly painted Jewish interiors to survive in Poland. Four massive pillars in the centre of the nearly square hall support the vaults and enclose the bimah, crowned by a small cupola, and every surface around it is covered with painted stucco, Hebrew inscriptions, zodiac signs, biblical scenes and animals.
The masonry synagogue was completed in 1761 on the site of an earlier wooden building destroyed by fire in 1733, and its construction was funded by Prince Stanisław Lubomirski, the owner of the town, whose family had encouraged Jewish settlement in Łańcut. It stands near the market square, beside the park of the Lubomirski residence. Architecturally it is a rare survivor of a type once found across the Polish lands: the vaulted masonry synagogue with a bimah-tower, in which the pillars of the reading platform carry the roof. The main hall measures about 13 by 12 m, lies below the level of the surrounding ground and rises to just over 9 m under the vaults; its windows are unusually large for a Polish synagogue.
The paintings date from the 18th century, with additions around 1900. Medallions above the cornice pair each sign of the zodiac with the festival of its month, and on the vaults appear the Tablets of the Law, a menorah, Noah's Ark, the sacrifice of Isaac, griffins, lions and musical instruments from the Psalms. In September 1939 German troops set the building on fire; the furnishings were lost, but Count Alfred Antoni Potocki saved the structure, which then served as a grain store. It has been a museum since 1981, from 2013 under the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland. The town of Łańcut is also known for its castle, the former residence of the Lubomirski and Potocki families.
Getting there
The synagogue stands on Sobieskiego Street in the centre of Łańcut. The nearest airport is Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport (RZE), about 16 km away in a straight line.
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From the encyclopaedia
The Łańcut Synagogue is a former Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Łańcut, in Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Poland. Completed in 1761, it served as a house of prayer until World War II; subsequently used for profane purposes, and as a Jewish museum since 1981. The Łańcut Synagogue is a rare surviving example of the vaulted synagogues with a bimah-tower, that were built throughout the Polish lands in masonry from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries.
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