Synagoge, Pastoorstraat 17 A

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction

Synagogue. Built in 1853 by city architect H.J. Heuvelink. Brick building in eclectic style with round-arched windows and polygonal buttresses, around which the moulded wooden cornice is carried through. Interior fittings largely preserved: galleries and monumental Ark in forms derived from classicism, crowned by ornamental vases (1853, Moritz Meijer).

The Arnhem Jews (already mentioned in documents from 1237 as a Jewish community in Arnhem) gathered in the 18th and early 19th centuries in a synagogue housed in three old residential buildings. This synagogue, located at the corner of the Bentincksteeg and the Kerkstraat, had become too small by the mid-19th century for the Jewish community, which had by then become quite considerable and in 1852 obtained land on the Pastoorstraat, on which city architect H.J. Heuvelink (1806-1867) built an entirely new synagogue. The building site for the new synagogue had become available after the demolition of the birthhouse of the Jewish legal scholar Jonas Daniel Meijer. The foundation stone was laid on 13 July 1852 (Jewish date: 26 Tammoez 5612). In synagogue building in the 19th century, owing to the lack of good historical examples, no particular style or fixed building type was adopted. A standard type to which new synagogues could look as a model was lacking. For the Arnhem synagogue eclecticism was chosen, which was at that time generally applied in architecture. Gothic and classicistic elements are interwoven, resulting in a striking building. The Holy Ark from 1799 in classicistic forms with Tuscan corner columns, a frieze with triglyphs and a pediment from the old synagogue was not transferred to the new building but moved to the synagogue in Elburg and after the Second World War ended up in the synagogue in Winterswijk. Striking elements of the Arnhem synagogue are the five-sided buttresses and the large round-arched windows with iron neogothic traceries. Characteristic for synagogues is the plaque with a Hebrew biblical text above the front facade. The building type can be described as a hall space with projecting pavilions (so-called Ashkenazi (High German) Jewish type). After repairs to war damage the synagogue was rededicated in 1950.

Description

The synagogue is located in the old city centre on the south side of the Pastoorstraat, a small street that connects the two north-south running streets, the Bakkerstraat and the Kerkstraat with each other. The synagogue stands freely in the southern facade and is set back somewhat in relation to the surrounding buildings with an iron fence in front at street level. The synagogue is executed in brick with sandstone plinth and mouldings and iron frames. The building has a rectangular plan with substantial projecting pavilions against the short side facades. The low lower storey is separated from the tall upper structure by a substantial moulded natural stone cornice. The synagogue has a substantial hipped roof on the main block, covered with interlocking tiles and two substantial roof dormers with flat roofs in the side hipped sections. The building has a sandstone plinth. Four five-sided buttresses are placed in the front facade. The walls are laid in brick in cross bond. These buttresses divide the front facade into five bays. The central bay is very broad and is flanked on either side by a narrower plane. On both corners there are narrow blind bays. The central bay has three window axes with below the cordon line (later) rectangular windows and above the cordon line three round-arched windows. The narrower bays next to it each have a window of the same type on the lower and upper storey. The windows have iron frames with four-part tracery with round arches and circles in the top. The five-sided buttresses are clad with natural stone in the base structure. The facades end with a moulded plastered architrave line, a brick frieze with fine ornamental anchors and a wooden moulded cornice. The buttresses are continued above the roof line as octagonal pilasters and serve as corner pilasters for a plastered balustrade (a type of attic). The two middle pilasters are continued higher than the corner pilasters. Between these higher pillars is a field placed with the text of verse 7b of Isaiah LVI in Hebrew script (the text is blackened). The broad projecting pavilion of the right side facade has polygonal buttresses on the corners and two polygonal buttresses flanking the central bay. These two buttresses are also continued above the cornice higher than the corner buttresses and flank a brick field with plastered plinth and cornice which is also carried over both buttresses. The division into three bays of the projecting pavilion is also symmetrical, the middle bay is the widest. Each bay is however provided with a window. The windows of the lower structure have been altered. Furthermore a modern iron door has been placed in the central bay. The narrow, recessed corner sections and side walls of the projecting pavilion are left blind. The left side facade has a narrower projecting pavilion with a polygonal buttress only on the corners of the projecting pavilion. This facade also has tall round-arched windows. The rear facade is not articulated by means of buttresses and ends above with a gutter line. This facade originally had a symmetrical arrangement with five round-arched windows, one on both corners and in the middle a group of three windows. The left window (western window) was later bricked up by the addition of an extension. Against the base structure of this facade there are outbuildings along the entire width. In the 21st century part of the outbuildings was replaced by new construction and the original arrangement of the rear facade was restored.

The synagogue is in the interior three-aisled with galleries on either side, separated from the central aisle by slender octagonal columns. In the interior is notably: the monumental Ark with polygonal corner columns and doors with panels with foliate decorations in neo-classicistic forms from 1853, designed by Moritz Meijer and a clock from 1898 with a Hebrew text in remembrance of the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina.

An iron fence closes off the site at street level.

Evaluation

The Arnhem High German synagogue is a remarkable building from the mid-19th century in eclectic style, in which elements of neo-classicism (large round-arched windows, attics) are combined with forms derived from early neogothic (traceries in windows, polygonal buttresses) and is also within the group of synagogues dating from the 19th century an unique building by virtue of its design and form. Furthermore of art-historical value owing to the monumental mid-19th century Ark.

The synagogue furthermore has cultural-historical value as an expression of Jewish culture in our country, which has a long and eventful history (in Arnhem since 1237!). By virtue of its monumental design, the building fulfils an important role in the character of the Pastoorstraat.