Museum - Synagogue Complex in Włodawa

Practical info

What to expect

Włodawa is a small town on the river Bug, in the far north-eastern corner of the Lublin region, close to the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. What survives here is unusual for Poland: three masonry buildings that all belonged to the local kahal, the Jewish community administration, standing together behind a single gate. The Great Synagogue (bet ha-kneset) was built between 1764 and 1774 on the site of an earlier wooden one, financed by the community and partly by the Czartoryski family, then owners of the town. The Small Synagogue, the old bet ha-midrash where people both prayed and studied the Torah and the Talmudic books, is recorded in written sources between 1782 and 1786. The third building, the kahal house of 1928, held the community board, a library and several Jewish associations. All three have been the museum’s home since 1983.

The Great Synagogue is late baroque, rectangular in plan, with single-storey women’s sections crowned by a comb-shaped attic. The main men’s hall carries a nine-bay barrel-and-groin vault resting on four columns, between which the bimah once stood. The only original fitting left in the prayer hall is the neo-baroque aron ha-kodesh of 1936, in polychromed stucco; the earlier wooden furnishings burned in a fire in 1934. In the kahal house a white marble foundation tablet of 1927 or 1928 was found, its Hebrew inscription cut inside a triangle.

The museum keeps the three buildings thematically apart. The Great Synagogue shows only exhibitions connected with Jewish culture, so that the atmosphere of the place survives: a permanent display of Judaica, a women’s gallery and a melamed’s room from a traditional cheder. The Small Synagogue is given over to the multicultural history of the town and the ethnography of the borderland. The third building holds ethnological and exotic displays, among them a collection of sculptures by Jan Pawłowski of Włodawa. The museum also runs the Zachęta cinema and organises the Festival of Three Cultures.

Tips

The museum is open all year on three different timetables. In July and August it runs Monday to Friday 9:00-17:00 and at weekends 10:00-17:00; in May, June and September 9:00-16:00 on weekdays and 10:00-14:00 at weekends; from October to April on weekdays only, 9:00-15:00. A standard ticket is 18 PLN, a concession 12 PLN and a family ticket 12 PLN per person. Every Monday the exhibitions in the Great Synagogue are free, while the other buildings cost 10 PLN and 7 PLN.

Guided visits are for organised groups of up to 30 people and cost 100 PLN in Polish or 200 PLN in English; book two days ahead by telephone between 8:00 and 15:00 on weekdays, or through the form on the museum’s website. There is no online sale of individual tickets, but the desk takes cash and cards. The museum closes on public holidays, among them 15 August and 1 and 11 November. All three buildings have step-free entrances and accessible toilets, and the Small Synagogue has a lift and an induction loop.

Getting there

The address is ul. Czerwonego Krzyża 7, 22-200 Włodawa, a short walk from the town centre. Lublin, the regional capital and the nearest large city, lies close to 100 km away by road via Chełm or Parczew, so most visitors arrive by car; Włodawa is also a common stop on Jewish heritage routes along the Bug. A single gate leads onto the museum grounds and to all three buildings, with the Great Synagogue straight ahead and the Small Synagogue to its left. Bicycles may be left inside the grounds. The museum lists no public transport lines on its site.

Nearby museums

The closest neighbour is the museum and memorial site at Sobibór, the camp to which the Jews of Włodawa were finally deported; the museum here runs a guided walk along that route. South, towards Lublin, lies the museum of the Chełm land, and north, already in Podlasie, the museum in Biała Podlaska.