Tempel Synagogue, Kraków
Moorish-revival prayer hall of forty-three stained glass windows, the only synagogue glass to survive intact in the country.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Tempel Synagogue in Kraków opens with a wartime detail: the Nazis used the building to store ammunition crates, a choice made for convenience that shaped what survived here. It traces back to 1862, when Kraków's Progressive Jewish congregation broke from the Orthodox community of Kazimierz to build a synagogue modeled on Vienna's reform temple, and to Rabbi Ozjasz Thon, who preached from this pulpit before sitting in Poland's parliament. Look up at the forty-three stained glass windows still glowing above the marble ark.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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