Great Synagogue

The largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world seats 3,000 people under a ceiling that draws its decorative language not from European traditions but from the Islamic architecture of North Africa and medieval Spain. Built between 1854 and 1859, the Dohány Street Synagogue was designed by Viennese architect Ludwig Förster in the Moorish Revival style, with twin octagonal towers crowned by onion domes reaching 43 metres high. The choice was deliberate and radical: in a city where every church was Gothic or Baroque, the synagogue announced its otherness with exuberant confidence.

The building stands on the edge of what became the Budapest Ghetto during World War II, and Dohány Street itself formed one of the ghetto's boundaries. The Arrow Cross Party bombed the synagogue on February 3, 1939, years before the ghetto was established, and during the winter of 1944-45, the area around it became one of the most concentrated sites of suffering in the Holocaust. An estimated 10,000 people died within the ghetto from cold, starvation, and violence.

The synagogue complex today includes the Heroes' Temple, a memorial cemetery in the courtyard, and the Hungarian Jewish Museum. In the rear courtyard stands the Emanuel Tree, a weeping willow sculpture in metal by Imre Varga, with the names of Holocaust victims inscribed on its leaves. It was partly funded by a donation from the actor Tony Curtis, whose parents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants.

The synagogue is a centre of Neolog Judaism, Hungary's equivalent of Conservative Judaism. Guided tours run regularly and are the best way to understand both the architectural beauty and the weight of history this building carries.