A team of experts organized by Europa Nostra paid a visit last week to the synagogue in Subotica (Szabadka), Serbia — an art nouveau masterpiece dating from 1902 that Europa Nostra has put on its 2014 list of seven most endangered monuments in Europe. The synagogue was designed by the Hungarian architects Marcell Komor and Dezsö Jakab, who also designed other important buildings in and around the town.
Participants in the delegation, which visited Subotica Oct. 14-16, included Richard Deeley, Technical Consultant provided by the European Investment Bank Institute, Patrizia Valle, Architect Conservator and Member of the Scientific Council of Europa Nostra, Graham Bell, Architect Conservator and Member of the Europa Nostra Council, Alessandra Peruzetto, Architect Conservator from the World Monument Fund, and Irina Subotic, Art Historian and President of Europa Nostra Serbia,.
A Europa Nostra report states that the delegation “tried to understand the main challenges in regard to ongoing conservation works, future business and maintenance planning, as well as the future use of the monument,” which is owned by the Municipality and has been undergoing fitful restoration since the 1970s.
The delegation took part in several working meetings with local and national stakeholders with the aim of supporting the rehabilitation of the Synagogue, considered one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Central Europe. The experts will help formulate a technical and financial action plan for its conservation before the end of this year. […] The main impressions of the mission concern financial, technical and managerial challenges involved in the restoration of such a unique and complex building. […]The Municipality is investing in step by step restoration projects and has commissioned key studies for the interior restoration which are expected to be complete by the end November.
During the visit, according to the report, the delegation met with city authorities, Institutes for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, the Jewish Community, the Hungarian National Council, the Ministry of Culture and Media, and the civil sector representatives Smile in Subotica “in order to understand a variety of perspectives. All of them agreed that the rehabilitation of the Synagogue is a project of great importance. The City, the Jewish Community and the Hungarian National Council are already working in close partnership on the restoration and are making significant progress.”
Over the past decade, the synagogue has been a priority project of the World Monuments Fund and its Jewish Heritage Program. Focus has been on exterior work on the synagogue and its roof and, as we reported, the stained glass windows by Miksa Roth have been 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.
Read the full Europa Nostra report
360 Degree panoramic view of the synagogue
WMF Jewish Heritage Program brochure