Synagoga Pod Białym Bocianem, Wrocław

Synagoga Pod Białym Bocianem is the White Stork Synagogue, a Conservative Jewish place of worship in Wrocław. Its calm neoclassical character, drawing on the forms of ancient Greece and Rome, is the work of Carl Ferdinand Langhans. Construction began in eighteen twenty-seven, and the building welcomed worshippers in eighteen twenty-nine.

Its unusual name comes from an inn that once occupied this plot. The interior holds a powerful record of survival. During Kristallnacht, Nazi paramilitaries wrecked the sanctuary and destroyed Torah scrolls, yet this synagogue escaped burning because fire could have spread to adjoining buildings.

Later, the courtyard became an assembly point for Wrocław’s Jewish residents before deportation to death camps. Notice the galleries that wrap around the prayer space: they once accommodated women during services. The surviving wooden Torah-ark frame and damaged tablets are remnants of the earlier religious furnishings.

After a long restoration, the synagogue was dedicated anew in twenty ten. It now serves as the religious and cultural home of Wrocław’s Jewish community, and it is the sole Conservative synagogue in the city to have endured the Holocaust.