Architecture of Judaism on the examples of synagogues in the 17th- and the 18th-centuries in Poland

Mateusz Michalski

doi:10.5277/arc150305

Abstract

The term “architecture of Judaism” is very diffi cult to defi ne, and in this form does not appear in the literature. Analyzing the context in which objects are created, and their designers, makes a kind of inexplicable phenomenon. Researchers are more of the opinion that Jews in the Diaspora did not develop any particular architectural form, they derived rather from existing patterns. At the same time these authors often use interchangeably the concept of culture and religion, making it even more diffi cult to defi ne the relevant terms.     The aim of this article is to understand better the meaning of “architecture of Judaism” and, looking through the prism of culture and religion and the symbolism ingrained in them, to demonstrate certain universal patterns that are part of the constitutive phenomenon of architecture rooted in religion.