After touring Trenciansky Hrad and the Main Square, Ivan and I headed for lunch and the train station to catch our train back to Piestany. We walked through the Nove Namestie, the Ludovit Stur Square, and Ulica Palackeho and stopped for a few minutes to see Trencin's Synagogue.
The Synagogue was built in 1911 by the Fuchs and Niegreisz Architect Firm from blue prints drawn up by Dr. Richard Schreibner of Berlin and is in the neo-Romantic style of architecture. The Synagogue was built on site of an old wooden synagogue and the Jewish School. Along with the neo-Romantic features, the Synagogue also has Oriental and Byzantine influences.
Before World War II and the Slovak Puppet Government occupation of Trencin, the city's Jewish population numbered about 1,800 people, who lived in a relatively peaceful existence for hundreds of years. The new Synagogue was a Neological Synagogue and services and other events were held here for the Neologue Jewish population from 1911-1939.
After Tiso took over power in Slovakia in 1939, Jewish life in Slovakia and Trencin got steadily worse and the most active persecutions began in 1940. In 1942, most of the Slovak population was put in ghettos and deported to Auschwitz, where many of the Jewish population was gassed to death.
During the Slovak and German Fascists' occupations, the Synagogue was desecrated and several Judaic articles were stolen. Most of the Synagogue laid in ruin and disrepair until 1974, when a 10-year-long restoration began to bring the Trencin Synagogue back to its early 20th-century Glory. Today the Trencin Synagogue, although a smaller Jewish population in the city, is available for worship along with tours and is used for exhibits.
I only saw the outside of the synagogue for a short period of time, and I didn't have a chance to take a picture of it, which is a shame for me being such a shutterbug. Someday, I will have to return to Trencin to see the Synagogue up close and tour it. Unlike Vrbove and several other Slovak cities and towns' synagogues which lie in ruin from years of neglect and wartime atrocities, Trencin's Synagogue is beautifully restored and the heart of Trencin's tiny Jewish community.
The Trencin Synagogue is open for tours to the public daily except for Fridays and Saturdays which is the Shabat or Jewish Sabbath. It is worth a short period of your time when you visit Trencin to see one of the only synagogue in good condition in the area.