page_title: Synagogue architecture
section_title: Synagogues with bimah-support
hierarchical_section_title: Synagogue architecture / Blueprint for synagogues / Central Europe: Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth / Synagogues with bimah-support
caption_attribution_description: English: Synagogue in ŁańcutPolski: Łańcut, pl. Sobieskiego 16 - dawna synagoga, obecnie muzeum, 1761
context_page_description: Synagogue architecture often follows styles in vogue at the place and time of construction. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. According to tradition, the Divine Presence can be found wherever there is a minyan, a quorum, of ten. A synagogue always contains an ark, called aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazim and hekhal by Sephardim, where the Torah scrolls are kept.
context_section_description: In the second half of the 16th century masonry synagogues whose interiors present an original structural solution, found in no other kind of building, were constructed in the  Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. These were synagogue halls whose bimah was surrounded by four pillars. Placed upon a podium, connected above by arcading, in one powerful pier, the pillars constituted the bimah-support (or bimah-tower) supporting the vault, consisting of four barrels witl lunettes intersecting at the corners. The bases of the vault-rips rested on the podium or were transmitted through a balustrade, solid or pierced. A small cupola covered the field above the bimah. These cupolas were occasionally significantly lowered in comparison with the remaining fields of vaulting. Thus a kind of inner chapel, built inside the bimah-tower, was created.
  One of the first synagogues with a bimah-support was the Old Synagogue (Przemyśl), which was destroyed during World War II. Synagogues with a bimah-tower were built up to the 19th century and the concept was adopted in various Central European countries.
caption: Łańcut Synagogue, bimah-tower
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