Hvisdets Synagogue

The Synagogue in Gwoździec (Ukrainian: Гвіздець - Hvizdets) located in the Kolomyia Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, was erected in about 1640 under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, damaged during the First World War in consequence of the Pogrom caused by Tsarist troops and eventually burnt down after 1941 by German occupation forces.

This nearly forgotten monument of Jewish culture was recalled in 2014 on the occasion of the reconstruction of the wooden vault in the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

The around 15 meters high building was erected on a rectangular floor plan with cut-off vertices. The walls were built as a log-and-pillar structure. The stepped hip roof was covered with wood shingles.

Below the rafter framing was an octagonal wooden vault suspended, around 11,3 × 11,3 meters wide, with rich polychromy decoration.

The vault was 1729 rebuilt, a vestibule, a women porch and a Cheder with brick walls added. Before 1910 the building was generally renovated, but during the first world war was damaged and 1918-1939 again renovated, but burnt down after 1941 by German occupation forces.

The polychromic decoration, executed after 1652 by Israel, son of Mordechai Lisnicki from Staryiy Yarychiv and renovated by Isaac, son of Yehuda-ha-Kohen from Yarychiv.

The reconstruction of the vault, performed 2010-2014 for the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw was possible thanks to the manuscript of the Polish painter Karol Zyndram Maszkowski (1868-1938). Maszkowski visited Gwoździec on the autumn 1891 to investigate the polychromy of the synagogue. On the order of the Polish Academy of Learning in Cracow he added 1898/1899 a set of drawings, showing the vault polychromy.

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Wikipedia