ARCHITECTUURGIDS.NL / ARCHITECTUREGUIDE.NL

SYNAGOGUE ENSCHEDE

K.P.C. DE BAZEL, 1918-1929, Prinsestraat 14, Enschede

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Karel de Bazel

ASSISTING ARCHITECT:
Cornelis van der Linde
Anton Smits

ARTIST:
Lambert Lourijsen

RENOVATOR:
De Boer Witte Van der Heijden

BUILDING TYPE:
Religious buildings

Built with financial help from the textile manufacturer S.N. Menko, this synagogue is De Bazel's last realized work. After his death, his sketch design of 1919 was carried out by the architects A.P. Smits and C. van de Linde and expanded with, amongst other things, a Jewish school and homes for the teacher and the rabbi. The low-key, geometrically decorated brick volumes are topped with copper dome roofs. The tall prayer room at the centre is square in plan yet has a tall decagonal dome for a roof, its twelve sides representing the twelve tribes of Israel. De Bazel, who was a Catholic, familiarized himself with Jewish worship for this design, at the same time rooting it in oriental architecture.