The Pinkas Synagogue in Prague is the second-oldest surviving synagogue in the city and serves as a memorial to the victims of the Shoah from Bohemia and Moravia.
The Pinkas Synagogue is located in Prague's Josefov and is part of the tour route of the Jewish Museum in Prague. According to the Jewish Museum, it is the second-oldest surviving synagogue in Prague and one of the most impressive stops on its museum route [1].
History
On the site of the present building, a smaller prayer room was established in 1492 next to the house "U Erbů" [1]. In 1535 Aron Meshullam Horowitz, according to the museum one of the prominent members of the Prague Jewish community, had the synagogue built in the late Gothic style [1]. The synagogue probably got its name from his grandson, Rabbi Pinkas Horowitz [1]. The building served as a private family prayer room, and a ritual bath, a mikveh, was built nearby [1].
At the beginning of the 17th century, the builder Juda de Herz added a women's gallery, a vestibule and an entrance hall [1]. In 1860, as a result of a flood, the floor of the main hall was raised by 1.5 metres [1]. Another flood struck the building in 2002, when water flooded the nave to a height of 1.3 metres [1]. After reconstruction, the building was reopened in 2003, according to the English version of the museum's website [2].
Appearance and furnishings
The synagogue bears features of late Gothic with an early Renaissance portal [1]. The space is lit by five windows with stone tracery, the walls are decorated with buttresses and with painting imitating Renaissance stucco [1]. In the middle of the main nave stands a stone bimah, enclosed by a Rococo grille with the motif of the Star of David and a Jewish hat, donated by Joachim Popper [1]. On either side of the Torah ark (aron ha-kodesh) are the names of the ghettos and camps to which transports from the Czech lands were directed [1].
Shoah memorial
The originally family synagogue became, according to the museum, "a very powerfully affecting memorial to the Shoah" [1]. Thanks to the efforts of Hana Volavková, the museum's first postwar director, the synagogue was converted in 1955–1960 into a memorial to almost 80,000 Czech and Moravian Jews who became victims of the Shoah [1]. The authors of the wall inscription of the names, according to the museum one of the oldest memorials of its kind in Europe, are the painters Václav Boštík and Jiří John [1]. After the Soviet invasion in 1968, the memorial was closed for more than 20 years and was fully reconstructed and made accessible only in 1995 [1]. The synagogue had been restored to its original form in 1950–1954 [1]. Those interested in family history or the Shoah in the Czech lands can use a digital interface with the names of the victims and available digitised documents [1].
Exhibition of children's drawings from Terezín
On the upper floor of the synagogue is a permanent exhibition of children's drawings from the ghetto in Terezín from 1942–1944 [1]. The collection comprises 4,387 drawings and is cared for by the Jewish Museum in Prague [1]. The museum states that more than 10,000 children under the age of 15 passed through the ghetto, and the drawings capture life before deportation, transports, dreams and everyday life, and are often the only trace of children who did not return [1]. Since 2025 this collection has been inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register [1].
Status and practical information
The synagogue is managed by the Jewish Museum in Prague and is part of the tour route Prague Jewish Town [1]. According to the operator's website, the building has a ticket office and an audio guide rental [1].