Old Synagogue
In Old Synagogue once stood a Gothic and Mannerist fortress synagogue for Kraków’s Orthodox Jewish community—one of the city’s most important religious, social, and organizational centers. Construction was dated differently across sources, with estimates ranging from 1407 to 1570, but the rebuilding in 1570 is firmly tied to the Italian architect Mateo Gucci. That renovation introduced features borrowed from military architecture: thick masonry walls, heavy buttressing, and even loopholes and windows placed well above ground level. In 1794, General Tadeusz Kościuszko spoke from inside the synagogue to win Jewish support during the Kościuszko Uprising. During the Nazi occupation, the synagogue was desecrated and ransacked in 1939 and used as a warehouse; in 1943, 30 Polish hostages were executed at its wall. Renovated from 1956 to 1959, it later became a branch of Kraków’s museum. …
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