With the signing of a contract with a construction company, the renovation of the former synagogue in Koronowo, Poland, near Bydgoszcz, northwest of Warsaw, is expected to be completed soon, with the building, owned by the municipality, to be transformed into a cultural center and tourist information center.
Virtual Shtetl reports that there have been fitful attempts to renovate the 19th century synagogue — which is marked by a commemorative plaque — for several years. With the new contract, the transformation, funded by the Koronowo Municipality with some funding from the “historic preservation office and the Marshal’s office”, is now expected to be completed in May 2016. Total costs are estimated at more than 1 million zlotys, or about $300,000 or more.
The works will include, among others, renovation of the elevation, plastering and painting of the interior, renovation of the staircase and laying a new flooring as well as making a water supply system, and sewage and electric installations. Also a social and sanitary infrastructure is about to be included.
The synagogue was sold by the local Jewish community just before World War II. According to local media quoted by Virtual Shtetl
The synagogue was erected in 1856. In the 1930s, due to a dramatic decline in the local Jewish population, the Jewish community sold the synagogue to the “Sokół” Gymnastics Society. During WWII, Germans used it as a storehouse. Later, the building housed a cinema. In the 1990s, the cinema was closed down, and the building continued to be unused. In late 2010, the building was acquired by the Koronowo Municipality.
(It was also used by reactivated Sokol in the 1990s.)
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