Synagogue de la Paix
Modernist concrete synagogue clad in thin stone panels, its facade a dense lattice of forged stars of David.
This guide to the Synagogue de la Paix in Strasbourg starts with a trick of the eye: its pale stone facade is really thin panels, just centimeters thick, pinned onto a hidden skeleton of raw concrete. It traces why the disguise mattered here, going back to 1940, when Nazi youth groups burned and dynamited the previous synagogue on the Quai Kleber, forcing its congregation to pray for eight years in a converted arsenal. You'll hear how architect Claude Meyer-Levy broke ground in 1954, following the concrete style of Auguste Perret, and how ironworker Gilbert Poillerat forged a lattice of stars of David around the entrance dense enough to look like solid stone. Look up inside at the twelve raw concrete columns, one for each tribe of Israel.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.