Synagoga Wolfa Poppera, Kraków

Beyond the openwork three-bay gate and its small courtyard is the Wolf Popper Synagogue, a former house of Jewish worship at 16 Szeroka Street in Kazimierz. It was founded in 1620 by Wolf Popper, a merchant and financier from Chęciny. His nickname was “the Stork,” earned because he could balance on one leg when absorbed in thought.

Popper traded internationally in cloth and saltpetre, the ingredient used to make gunpowder, and became Kazimierz’s wealthiest banker. His generosity gave this synagogue the richest furnishings of Kraków’s synagogues, but their upkeep later pushed his heirs towards ruin. After the Second World War, the interior had been badly devastated and its precious fittings lost.

The building itself changed profoundly in the renovation of 1965 to 1967: the niche for the Torah ark was sealed, the Dajwór Street entrance closed, and wooden porches and extensions removed. The Hebrew inscription above the central passage recalls both the 1620 foundation and a 1904 restoration. Since 2017, this former synagogue has housed a branch of the Austeria bookshop, devoted to Jewish-culture publications and related books, music, and paper goods.