New Synagogue Žilina
Peter Behrens's 1931 Neolog synagogue, restored as a kunsthalle for contemporary art and events.
The Neolog Jewish community of Žilina commissioned the German architect Peter Behrens, a founding figure of modern European architecture, to design a new synagogue. Built between 1928 and 1931, it is a cube of pale render and stone set on a raised plinth, with a shallow dome over a square prayer hall and a colonnaded entrance porch. It is the only building by Behrens in Slovakia and one of the few synagogues by a leading modernist architect anywhere in central Europe.
After the Holocaust the congregation did not return, and the building served in turn as a lecture hall, a cinema called Kino Centrum and a commercial space, losing much of its interior. In 2011 the civic association Truc sphérique took it over and began a long conservation campaign supported by public fundraising. It reopened in 2017 as Nová synagóga, a kunsthalle presenting contemporary art exhibitions, concerts, discussions and an education programme, with the bare restored interior left visible.
Highlights
- The only building in Slovakia designed by Peter Behrens
- Domed square prayer hall now used as an exhibition space
- Conservation carried out with public fundraising from 2011
- Programme of contemporary art, concerts and public debates
