Haknasat Orhim or Choral Synagogue

Architectural values

The fire of 26 Mat 1894 laid waste to the city centre and the street which was then called Policijos (currently P. Butlerienės st.). It created a new empty space which during the reconstruction was used to build a new synagogue. In 1899, city’s architect Valerijus Rybarskis designed a house of prayer and, most likely after one year, it became a new elegant landmark of Marijampolė. The synagogue was actively used until the Second World War. After the war the Soviet government established a warehouse and vegetable shop here. Both the interior and the exterior of the building were damaged. In 1985, the synagogue was reconstructed and given to Marijampolė’s House of Engineers and a library of technical literature. After a decade, the building was started to be used by an educational centre of the Marijampolė district, later replaced by an educational centre of a well-known teacher, educologist and creator of the national school Meilė Lukšienė. In 2014, an art gallery of Beatričė Kleizaitė-Vasaris found home in the synagogue. It exhibits the painting, graphical and sculptural works created by well-known Lithuanian expatriates.