House synagogue St. Marienstraße (Wittstock)

Since the late Middle Ages, Jewish merchants settled in Wittstock. Near the center, in the middle between the St. Mary's Church and the Bishop's Castle was a prayer room of the resident Jewish community in a residential building since 1857.

The walls of the synagogue room were decorated with wall frescoes. These consisted of floral elements, which reached up to under the ceiling. These blue paintings (see picture) also belong to the last testimonies of Jewish life in the community of Wittstock, because during a fire in the city archive in 1958, numerous documents, also about the Jewish history of the city, were lost.

Nowadays, unfortunately, this structure can not be viewed without further ado. The former synagogue is completely converted into a residential building, and is also inhabited. Furthermore, the wall frescoes are partially obscured by the attic, which was moved in behind. Nevertheless, in the upper part you can still see the arching through the wooden beams, that this did not always look like this. Another suspicion was that the building was used not only as a prayer room, but also as a school for the Jewish children. However, this suspicion could not be confirmed so far.