Choral synagogue

A magnificent and historic synagogue. It was beautifully restored by Victor Vekselberg.

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The Choral Synagogue is an architectural and cultural monument in Drohobych, Ukraine, located on P. Orlyka Street. One of the eight existing buildings out of seventeen (according to other sources - twenty) synagogues of Drohobych, which were in the city between the First and Second World Wars. The first mention of the presence of Jews in the city of Drohobych is connected with the activities of Vovchko - the owner of the Drohobych salt mines and, at the same time, a trustee of the Polish king Wladyslaw Jagiello and dates back to 1404. In fact, the extraction of salt and its sale attracted wealthy Jewish merchants to the city and its environs, who settled in the areas adjacent to the mines. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the number of Jews living near Salt Lake and on the border of the then villages of Zvarych and Zavizhna (currently Zvarytska and Zavizhna Streets within modern Drohobych) gradually increased. They began making and selling alcohol ("propination"), brewing beer, "grinding" (adding strength) honey, which violated the monopoly of the church and the city magistrate on this activity and forced the latter to file a complaint against the Jews in the royal court. In 1578, King Stefan Batory of Poland granted Drohobych the privilege of the so-called "De non tolerandis Judaies" - a ban on Jews living within the city. In 1616, Polish King Wladyslaw IV Vaz granted him the privilege, in 1634 he was confirmed by the Drohobych warden and the royal treasurer Jan (Ivan) Danilovich. According to this privilege, Jews in the suburbs of Drohobych were given a barren plot of land the size of 30 mortuaries, ie 1 field (about 18 hectares) for the construction of their own housing and a synagogue. Thus arose the Jewish quarter, which was named "Lan". The built synagogue and the Lan quarter were destroyed in 1648 during the storming of the city by Cossack detachments led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. The construction of the choral synagogue was initiated by the local Jewish community, headed from 1849 by the Hasidic Tzaddik Laser-Nisan Teitboim (Rabbi Eliezer Nissen Teitboim, 1786–1853). The Drohobych Choral Synagogue was built for 23 years, from 1842 to 1865, in the Jewish suburb of Drohobych, Lan. At that time, the Drohobych Choral Synagogue was one of the largest synagogues in Europe and the largest in Western Ukraine. The exterior is based on a similar synagogue built in the German city of Kassel (1830), using the same Romanesque architectural belts typical of the German Rundbogen style for the façade. During World War II, the synagogue served as a stable. After the end of the Second World War, it housed a fabric warehouse, then a salt warehouse, later a furniture store, and in the outbuildings there were food warehouses. In the late 80's - early 90's of the 20th century the building was returned to the Drohobych Jewish community. Despite this, it was looted and set on fire twice. The building was in ruins, there were projects for its reconstruction.

Once, during the Soviet era, a furniture store was built there, the building was destroyed and decayed, and recently the synagogue was renovated and restored by the Jewish community - the architectural decoration of the city of Drohobych

The architecture is impressive, very nice design, yes, the location is in a good location, but the building does not fit into that location.