Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari, together with hundreds of people, attended the opening ceremony of the reconstructed synagogue in Žatec, the second largest in the Czech Republic.
The monument, which has been inscribed on the UNESCO list since last year together with the town of Žatec and the surrounding hop-growing landscape, has fallen into disrepair since Kristallnacht in the fall of 1938, and will now be used again after extensive reconstruction. The ceremonial opening took place on the occasion of the 152nd anniversary of the consecration of the synagogue in 1872.
In addition to the Israeli ambassador, present at this meaningful ceremony were also the Minister of Culture Martin Baxa, the leading representatives of Žatec and the Jewish community. Everyone praised the current owner of the monument, Daniel Černý, who was instrumental in saving it and breathing new life into it. "He contributed to the preservation of regional historical memory," said the Israeli ambassador.
In 1938, the synagogue was saved from complete destruction because of the fear that the fire would spread to the neighboring buildings. The vandalized Jewish tabernacle has not served its purpose since then. In World War II it was used as a German hospital, in the 1950s as a market, and later as a civil defense warehouse. The second largest synagogue in Bohemia was abandoned for many years, and after 1989 it changed hands several times. The dilapidated state of the building did not allow it to be made accessible, the synagogue was only opened to the public occasionally.
However, the story of the old building in the center of Žatec took a positive turn in the end. In 2012, the former mayor of Chomutov, Daniel Černý, bought the cultural real estate monument. "Buying the Žatec synagogue was the craziest idea in my life. But the house has been through a lot in recent decades, whether it was under the Nazis, the previous regime, or the previous owners who did not take care of the building sufficiently. It's time to break the curse," he said at the time. In 2019, he started an extensive reconstruction. The total budget of the renovation project amounted to almost CZK 56 million (almost USD 2,5 million).
Last year, the reconstruction was awarded the 2023 Patrimonium pro futuro prize by the National Monuments Institute.
