The Great Synagogue of Stockholm

The construction work of the Great Synagogue continued for three years from 1867 until 1870 according to the plans of the outstanding 19th century Swedish architect Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander (1816-1881). The Great Synagogue is a remarkable edifice built of bricks in a style which according to Scholander’s own description is reminiscent of “the oriental lands”. It is a large building that can sit 900 people; a capacity that is even more impressive when recalling that at the time of the synagogue’s opening the entire Jewish community of Stockholm had less than two thousands members. By its style and dimensions the Great Synagogue of Stockholm continues the line of monumental synagogues that started to be erected all over Europe and included such outstanding buildings as the New Synagogue in Oranienburger Straße of Berlin (built 1859-1866, destroyed in 1938) and the Great Synagogue in Dohany Street of Budapest (built 1854-1859). The style of these synagogues, inspired from the oriental architecture, especially Moorish, was intended to evocate the glorious past of the Jewish people in the land of Israel and in medieval Spain, while the size and location of the synagogues in the city centers expressed the newly acquired legal status and social respectability of the Jewish community.