Dohány utcai zsinagóga, Budapest

The Dohány Street Synagogue is the Great Synagogue, a vast Neolog Jewish place of worship designed by Ludwig Förster. Its façade combines Moorish Revival and Romantic Historicist forms, with twin octagonal towers, onion domes, a rose window, and alternating brickwork in yellow and red. The building was created between 1854 and 1859 and consecrated on 6 September 1859.

Its scale is extraordinary: it seats 3,000 people, making it the largest synagogue in Europe. Inside, a broad nave, galleries, richly patterned decoration, and an organ give the interior an unusual basilica-like character. Frigyes Feszl designed the Torah ark and the geometric frescoes, while the original organ had 5,000 pipes; Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns both played it.

The complex also contains the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives, the Heroes’ Temple, a cemetery, and a memorial park. The cemetery records the building’s wartime history: more than 2,000 people who died in the ghetto during the winter of 1944–1945 were buried in the courtyard. In the memorial park, Imre Varga’s weeping willow carries the names of victims on its leaves.