House of Arts
Domed former Neolog synagogue, now the concert hall of the Kosice State Philharmonic.
The House of Arts occupies the former Neolog synagogue on Moyzesova street in central Kosice. An international competition in 1924 was won by the Budapest architect Lajos Kozma, and the building went up in the second half of the 1920s as a centrally planned mass crowned by a dome and an onion-shaped lantern. The prayer hall was laid out on a circular plan, an arrangement that survives as the shape of the present auditorium and gives the room its distinctive sound.
The congregation was destroyed in the Holocaust, and from about 1960 the building was adapted as a concert hall and cultural centre. It is now the home of the Kosice State Philharmonic, founded in 1968 as the third professional symphony orchestra in Slovakia, which opened its fifty-eighth season here in October 2026. The orchestra plays a subscription series of symphonic and choral programmes, together with family concerts, film music evenings and the annual Kosice Music Spring festival.
Highlights
- Domed 1920s synagogue by the architect Lajos Kozma
- Circular auditorium retained from the prayer hall
- Home of the Kosice State Philharmonic since 1968
- Subscription series plus family and film-music concerts
