Explore Religious Heritage Across Europe

The Old Synagogue of Pińczów is currently one of the oldest synagogues in Poland, built in the years 1594-1609 according to the plans of the architect Santi Gucci. Renovated after the war, the synagogue nevertheless served as a warehouse until 1970, when it was decided to use the building for the Ponidzie Museum.

The Old Synagogue of Erfurt is a former synagogue whose oldest remnants date back to around 1094, making it the oldest synagogue in Europe. Most of the current building was erected around 1270, but in 1349, Jews of the city were blamed for the plague and were massacred in great number. Onward, the synagogue was then used as a warehouse, until became part of a restaurant at the end of the 19th century. In 1998, the city of Erfurt bought the Old Synagogue and after renovation, turned it in a museum on Erfurt's Jewish community.

The Old Synagogue in Essen was constructed from 1911 to 1913. It was originally consecrated as the Neue Synagogue (New Synagogue). It is one of the largest and best preserved testimonies to Jewish culture from pre-war Germany. The building was reconstructed in 1986 from destruction and disuse after World War II.

The Old Upper Synagogue in Mikulov was constructed in the mid 16th century and expanded in 1689. It was designed in a baroque style after fires in the early 1700s. Following World War II the building deteriorated. From 2010 to 2014 the synagogue was restored as part of the “10 Stars” project for the revitalization of Jewish monuments in the Czech Republic.

The old church in Veøy is a long medieval stone church built around the year 1200. Veøy Old Church is often compared to the two other central stone churches in Møre og Romsdal: Borgund Church and Tingvoll Church. The exterior is Romanesque and the interior dates from the post-reformation period. The church functioned as a parish church until 1907.

The Old Wooden Synagogue in Piatra Neamț dates from 1766. It underwent restoration in 1826, 1854, 1870, 1928, and 2010. According to legend the Baal Shem Tov prayed here, hence it is sometimes called the "Besht Synagogue". The synagogue building consists of a rectangular prayer hall with a women's gallery on the north side. The interior floor is sunken one and a half meters below the exterior ground level. An octagonal wooden dome, typical of 18th-century wooden synagogue architecture, rises above the bimah in the center of the main prayer hall. A stone vestibule attached to the west side of the wooden building functions in winter as a smaller, warmer prayer hall.

The Old-New Synagogue, built in 1270, is the oldest in the Josefov Quarter of Prague and one of the oldest active synagogues in Europe. This Gothic synagogue is also one of the best-preserved synagogues in Central Europe. For centuries it was called the "new synagogue" of the Jewish Quarter, until the construction of several new synagogues in the 16th century.

The new church in Olden is a wooden church built in 1934 based on the drawings of the architect Daniel Johan Muri. The details and decoration are characterised by neoclassicism and neo-baroque.

The Olden Old Church is a wooden church built in 1759 on the site of an old stave church probably dating from the 14th century. The stave church was demolished in 1746 and replaced by a wooden church which was destroyed by a storm in 1757. As it has no heating or electric light, a new service church was built in Olden in 1934.

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. According to the Commission of Preservation of the Jewish Heritage, the cemetery was founded in the early 19th century. It can be found marked on a Russian map of the region from 1872, a German map from 1941, and the city plan from 2018.