Grand Choral Synagogue

The Grand Choral Synagogue stands on Lermontovsky Prospect and remains the main center of spiritual life for Saint Petersburg's Jewish community. By the mid-19th century the city's Jewish community numbered about ten thousand people and had only a few small prayer houses scattered across different districts — clearly insufficient for the needs of a growing community. On the initiative of the faithful, fundraising began for the construction of a large synagogue; the principal donors were Baron Horace Günzburg and Samuil Polyakov, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the first chairman of the city's Jewish community.

The building's design was developed by architects Ivan Shaposhnikov and Lev Bakhman, with the participation of the renowned architect and art critic Vladimir Stasov and architect Nikolai Benois. Construction proceeded from 1883 to 1893, with architect Alexei Malov refining the design along the way. The building was erected in the eastern, Moorish style — with characteristic horseshoe arches, ornamental carving, and polychrome decoration recalling the traditions of synagogue architecture in Spain and North Africa. The synagogue's spacious vestibule has unusual acoustics: a word spoken in a whisper can be heard from more than ten meters away.

After the synagogue's construction was completed, all the city's earlier prayer houses were closed by decree of the Committee of Ministers, which initially caused difficulties, since the new building could not accommodate everyone at once. The synagogue also went through a tragic episode of the Soviet era: in 1930 it was briefly closed by decision of the Leningrad Regional Executive Committee, but after the faithful appealed to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the building was soon returned to the community. For several decades, from 1943 to 1973, Rabbi Lubanov served as the rabbi of the Leningrad synagogue.

Ahead of the 1980 Olympic Games, when the synagogue was included among the sights shown to foreign visitors, the state allocated funds for its restoration under the direction of architect Konstantin Plotkin. In the post-Soviet period a day school opened at the synagogue, and in 2013 the building solemnly marked its 120th anniversary: a new Torah scroll was written for the occasion, commemorative envelopes and medals were issued, and, for the first time in the city's history, a noon shot was fired from the Naryshkin Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress in honor of the event. Today the Grand Choral Synagogue remains an active religious and cultural center and an architectural monument of federal significance.