The Art Nouveau synagogue in Subotica (Szabadka) Serbia, which has been undergoing fitful restoration since the 1970s, has been placed on Europa Nostra’s 2014 list of Europe’s Seven Most Endangered Monuments and Sites. (We reported in March that it was short-listed for this.)
Over the past decade, the synagogue has been a priority project of the World Monuments Fund and its Jewish Heritage Program. Exterior work on the synagogue and its roof has been completed (or is almost completed) and, as we reported, the stained glass windows by Miksa Roth are also under restoration.
In February, the WMF announced a further grant to the synagogue to expand and upgrade the exhibition on display there and create a related web project.
Officials from Europa will be visiting the synagogue later this year to discuss strategy. Let’s hope these initiatives can combine to help finally to save this wonderful building — and keep alive the memory of the pre-WW2 Jewish community it represents.
Europa Nostra lobbies for monuments and heritage preservation, targets endangered sites and grants annual awards for restoration projects. It is a network of 250 member organizations across Europe, including heritage associations and foundations, plus 150 associated organizations (governmental bodies, local authorities and corporations) and also 1500 individual members.
The announcement of the Seven Most Endangered List was made May 4 at its European Heritage Conference in Vienna, by Europa Nostra and the European Investment Bank Institute.
Regarding the synagogue, which is owned by the Municipality of Subotica, the announcement said:
This is one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau religious architecture in Central Europe. Designed by Hungarian architects Marcell Komor and Dezsö Jakab and built in 1902, the Synagogue of Subotica combines a modern concrete and steel structure with traditional decorative elements from Hungarian Folk Art. It is acknowledged as a Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance.
At the time the synagogue was built the city had a large Jewish population of around 3,000 people. After World War II, this number fell and a building of this size could no longer be sustained. Nonetheless, the synagogue remains of huge importance to the Jewish community both locally and internationally.
The building was used by the Subotica National Theatre for a number of years but is now empty, with visitor access available only one day a week, and its condition has inevitably deteriorated.
Despite the restoration works undertaken in recent decades, the building remains highly endangered. International expertise and solidarity are needed to save this architectural and cultural gem.
The other sites on the Seven Most Endangered List are: The historic stage machinery of the Bourla theatre in Antwerp in Belgium; the neighborhoods of Dolcho and Apozari in Kastoria in Greece; the citadel of Alessandria in Italy; the carillons of the Mafra National Palace in Portugal; the wooden churches in southern Transylvania and northern Oltenia in Romania; the Color Row Settlement in Chernyakhovsk in Russia.
360 Degree panoramic view of the synagogue
WMF Jewish Heritage Program brochure