Plovdiv Synagogue

Worth a detour

Zion is one of the few surviving Ottoman-plan synagogues in the Balkans and it is almost invisible from outside — a plain block in a courtyard behind the street front, with nothing announcing it. Inside is a square room about twelve metres each way, painted in blues and greens with geometric bands, a star-scattered ceiling and a Venetian glass chandelier hanging in the middle. Still in use, and opening is irregular.

Story

Background

Plovdiv's Jewish quarter was called Orta Mezar under the Ottomans, and the community here was Sephardi. The present synagogue went up in 1886 and 1887 on the site of an earlier one, in the years just after the liberation — among the first built in the new country — and was extended in 1922, when the congregation was at its largest.

The plan is the Ottoman one: a square room rather than a basilica, roughly twelve metres each way, with the bimah in the middle. The decoration is the reason to get inside. Walls and ceiling carry blue and green geometric work rather than figures, the ceiling a field of stars, and a Venetian glass chandelier hangs at the centre of it. Much of what you see is the result of a restoration completed in 2003, after decades in which the building deteriorated badly.

The Jewish community in Plovdiv now numbers a few hundred. The synagogue still functions, which is the main reason access is not on a fixed timetable — there is no ticket desk and no posted schedule you can rely on. Ask at the Jewish community's office, or try mid-morning on a weekday and accept that you may find a locked gate. The entrance is through a courtyard and easy to walk straight past.