Dolní Kounice Synagogue

Dolní Kounice Synagogue
Dolní Kounice Synagogue
	Northern side of the synagogue
Religion
Affiliation	Orthodox Judaism
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Museum
Location
Location	Dolní Kounice, Czech Republic
Architecture
Style	Baroque
Completed	1655

The Dolní Kounice Synagogue (Czech: Synagoga v Dolních Kounicích) is a synagogue in Dolní Kounice in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It was built in 1652–1655.

History

First traces of Jewish settlement in Dolní Kounice are from half of 15th century. The first written mention of a synagogue here comes from 1581. The old synagogue was located on eastern part of the village and was destroyed by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War in 1645.

A new one has been built in the middle of the new ghetto in 1652–1655. It was built in the Baroque style and is one of the oldest synagogues in Moravia.^[1] The building has rectangular ground plan and two floors. In the middle of the 19th century, new tract was added and used to extends tribune for women.

In the early 1940s, Nazis closed down the religious services and moved the decorations to the Jewish Museum in Prague. After the war the building was used as storehouse. In 1991 it was returned, as a part of restitutions, to the Jewish community in Brno. In 1994 the synagogue was reconstructed.