Izaak Synagogue

The Isaac Synagogue (Synagoga Izaaka Jakubowicza) stands on the corner of Kupa and Izaaka streets in Kraków's Kazimierz district. This early Baroque house of prayer opened in 1644 and for a long time was regarded as the grandest synagogue in the city.

Who founded the synagogue?

The building was paid for by Isaac (Ajzyk) Jakubowicz, a wealthy merchant and banker who led the Kazimierz kahal, the Jewish community council. King Władysław IV granted permission for the project on 30 April 1638. An inscription on the synagogue wall records that the idea came from Jakubowicz's wife, Brajndla. The founder is buried in the Remuh Cemetery nearby.

A well-known folk tale surrounds him. Poor Ajzyk dreamt that treasure lay waiting under a bridge in Prague. There a guard mocked him and told of his own dream about riches under the stove of one Ajzyk from Kazimierz. Jakubowicz went home, dismantled the stove and found the fortune that paid for the synagogue.

Why was construction delayed?

The project met resistance from Father Marcin Kłoczyński, provost of the Canons Regular of the Lateran at the nearby Corpus Christi Church. He argued that the synagogue would stand too close to Christian homes and to the route priests took when carrying the viaticum to the sick. The dispute halted work for a while, but Jakubowicz eventually secured approval, and the synagogue was ceremonially opened in 1644.

Who designed it, and what is inside?

The design is associated with the Italian architect Giovanni Trevano and with Jan Laitner. The prayer hall is covered by a barrel vault with lunettes, decorated with a geometric pattern of stucco ribs. The women's gallery upstairs opens onto the hall through a row of round arches. Fragments of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century wall paintings show prayers and liturgical texts set in painted frames. In the middle of the east wall stands a reconstructed early Baroque Torah ark, topped by raised tablets of the Ten Commandments beneath a crown.

In 1924 a double staircase with an arcaded porch leading to the women's gallery was added in front of the west entrance. Against the north wall stands a small building that members of the religious Zionist Mizrachi movement put up as a separate synagogue.

What happened here during and after the war?

In December 1939 the Germans ordered Maksymilian Redlich, an official of the Jewish community, to burn the Torah scrolls. He refused and was shot outside the entrance. The occupiers destroyed the wrought-iron bimah and the ark, and the furnishings were lost. In 1943–1944 a theatre workshop operated inside, where the artist Tadeusz Kantor worked as a scenery painter.

After the war the building served as a warehouse. A plan to turn it into a church of the Polish National Catholic Church collapsed after protests by Kraków's Jewish congregation. The Union of Polish Artists later used the hall as a sculpture studio. By the mid-1970s the building stood empty, and in 1981 a fire gutted the interior. Conservation began in 1983 and uncovered the old wall paintings. The synagogue went back to the Jewish community in 1989 and opened to visitors in 1997.

What is its condition today?

The building belongs to the Jewish Religious Community of Kraków, which is carrying out conservation work funded in part by the Social Committee for the Restoration of Kraków's Monuments. Access to the interior depends on the progress of this work. Like all the community's synagogues, it is closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded the Isaac Synagogue? Isaac Jakubowicz, a merchant, banker and head of the Kazimierz Jewish council, with royal permission granted in 1638.

When did it open? In 1644, after a dispute with the provost of the monastery at Corpus Christi Church.

Who was the architect? The design is associated with Giovanni Trevano and Jan Laitner.

Can I see the interior? Conservation work is under way, so entry is not always possible. The building is closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays.

What is the link with Tadeusz Kantor? In 1943–1944 Kantor painted stage scenery here, in a theatre workshop set up during the occupation.