History

The Jewish commune in Piotrków was established under the privilege granted by king John III Sobieski in 1679. The wooden synagogue was built in 1689. It was destroyed in 1740. The present day synagogue, funded by Mojżesz Kocyn, was built between 1791 and 1793. In the middle of the 19th century, it was remodelled and enlarged, with the western elevation being extended forward. During the Second World War, it was burnt down and vandalized. Between 1964 and 1966, it was renovated and converted into a public library. Behind the synagogue, there is an area formerly occupied by a Jewish cemetery, used in the years 1689-1795 and destroyed by the Germans. It was a place of mass executions of members of the Jewish population from the Piotrków Ghetto - the first ghetto established in Poland in October 1939. Next to the synagogue, the building of the former Jewish school (the so-called little synagogue) was founded in 1765 by Hern Piotrkower. The classrooms were situated on the ground floor. On the first floor, there were offices of the rabbinical court and the communal board. Inside, there is a preserved fragment of the polychrome painted in 1931 by Perec Wilenberg. It depicts lions supporting the tablets with the Ten Commandments. Under an agreement with the Jewish Community, the synagogue was purchased in 2000 by the Municipality of Piotrków Trybunalski.

Description

The synagogue is situated in the eastern part of the city, approximately 60 metres to the east of the castle. At the north-eastern corner of the intersection of Wojska Polskiego and Jerozolimska Streets. The building is situated in a tightly built-up area dating to the 19th-century. The front, western elevation is included in the frontage of Jerozolimska Street. From the south, there is a connector linking the synagogue with the building of the former Jewish school.

It was built on a square-like plan, with an avant-corps on the axis of the western elevation. The interior is divided into a central nave and two narrow corridors of equal width along the northern and southern elevations. In the avant-corps, there is a staircase. The first floor has a similar layout.

The building has two storeys with a non-usable attic. Covered with a gable roof. One-storey rooms along the northern and southern walls are covered with shed roofs.

The building is set on foundations made from bricks and stones bound with lime mortar. The walls are made from solid ceramic bricks on lime mortar, plastered. In the nave, there are two original pillars made from bricks bound with lime mortar and four reinforced concrete pillars.

Ackerman ceilings rest on reinforced concrete walls and joists (above the main hall, the joists are incorporated into the ceiling framing system). On the first floor, there is an imitation of a mirror vault with lunettes, suspended from the roof structure. The building has a steel roof truss, made of flat lattice girders. The roof is covered with sheet metal with standing seam joints. Three-quarter, twin stairs, made from reinforced concrete, monolithic, with terrazzo steps. The balustrade consists of vertical bars, with wooden, profiled handrail. In the passages and sanitary facilities, there are terrazzo floors. The other rooms have wooden parquet floors. Wooden, frame-panelled, with one or two wings, lacquered. In the vestibule, there is two-wing, swinging, glazed door. The external door is decorated with wooden panelling with brass bosses. All windows are wooden, coupled.

The western, front elevation is symmetrical. The central part has two storeys and an attic, with a single-axis avant-corps, situated on the axis of the building. The ground floor is five-axial, the upper storey is four-axial. The attic is lighted by a single window. The elevation of the corps de logis is decorated with rusticated plasterwork, in the form of rhombuses. It was erected on a low plinth topped with a cornice. The avant-corps is framed by corner pilasters. At the attic level, they assume the form of pillars carrying the octagonal pinnacles. The central axis, in the avant-corps, is defined by a rectangular entrance opening, in stepped, splayed, profiled reveals, topped with a Tudor arch. Above the door, there is a pentagonal panel with the inscription ADAM PRÓCHNIK MUNICIPAL PUBLIC LIBRARY. In the second storey of the avant-corps, there are two high window openings topped with a Tudor arch. In the attic, there is a single diamond-shaped window. The avant-corps is topped with a triangular gable framed by an entablature with a dentil frieze. On the walls of the corps de logis, which flank the avant-corps, the single axes are marked by the narrow window openings with a full arch on top. They are placed in smoothly plastered panels in a profiled frame topped with a Tudor arch. The walls are topped with a cornice and an arcaded frieze. The roof is concealed by the attic walls. The extreme axes, in the gables of the extensions, are marked by the window openings topped with a Tudor arch. Above, there is a diamond-shaped window opening. The openings are contoured by profiled surrounds. Multi-section windows. The axes are positioned against the background of a smoothly plastered panel flanked by pilasters and topped with an arcaded frieze. The roofs of the extensions are concealed by the rectangular attic walls. In the central part, the eastern elevation is two-storey. The walls of the aisles are single-storey. Seven-axial. The extreme axes are positioned in the gable walls of the aisles. Their design is similar to that of the western elevation. There are five axes in the corps de logis. The central axis on the ground floor is marked by a decorative panel topped with a segmental arch. Above, there is a bifora adored with a panel topped with a basket arch. On each storey, the external axes are positioned in pairs against the background of a high, two-storey decorative panel with a segmental arch on top. On the ground floor, there are low openings topped with a basket arch. The openings further above are twice as high and crowned with a full arch. The decorative panels are topped with a cornice. At the attic level, in a triangular pediment, there are three rectangular blendes topped with segmental arches, with small, elliptical windows.

The northern elevation has two storeys and four axes. It is set on a plinth topped with a cornice. The openings on the ground floor provide natural light to the aisle. They are topped with segmental arches. Above each window, there is a panel topped with a Tudor arch, contoured by a profiled surround. Above, there are diamond-shaped openings in profiled surrounds. Further above, there is an arcaded frieze. Under the eaves, there is a crowning cornice. The window openings in the second storey are topped with a full arch. Each window is set in deep jambs and framed with a profiled surround. The wall is crowned with an under-eaves cornice resting on a cantilever frieze. The southern elevation is similar to the northern one. The three eastern window axes on the ground floor are concealed by a contemporary connector and transformed into door openings. 

The building can be visited during the opening hours of the library. www.http://biblioteka.piotrkow.pl/

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc-Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź 13 May 2020

Bibliography

• Florek R., Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, 1992, Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Łódź, National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw,
• Głowacki K., Urbanistyka Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego, Piotrków Trybunalski – Kielce 1984.
• Karpowska M., Baranowska Z., Baranowski J., Studium historyczno-architektoniczne, PKZ Warszawa 1964