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Great Synagogue of Copenhagen

Great Synagogue of Copenhagen

Gustav Friedrich Hetsch

Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Client / Owner
—
Year
Completed 1833
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual

Jews were invited into Denmark from 1622, and Abraham Salomon became the first rabbi in the country in 1687. The congregation's first synagogue was completed in 1766. A small synagogue used from 1766 to 1795 burned down. A split between Orthodox and Progressive members then delayed a new building for about thirty years.

The present synagogue was completed in 1833, and the Danish architect Gustav Friedrich Hetsch designed it. The article calls the exterior Neoclassical and simple, while the interior uses Egyptian Revival elements in the columns, ceiling and cornice over the Ark. It says few synagogues of its period did this.

The Egyptian elements give it an Eastern European feel rather than a Northern European one. It serves an Orthodox congregation in the Nusach Ashkenaz rite on Krystalgade.

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