Central synagogue

Budapest Central Synagogue is the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world after the Emanuel Synagogue in New York. Completed in 1859, it was built in a Moorish-Byzantine style by the Austrian architect Ludwig Förster. The building was partly destroyed by bombing campaigns during World War II, but has been the subject of much renovation to restore its two shining Moorish domes to their former brilliance. The Jewish Museum next door recounts the horrors of the Holocaust and displays exhibits dating as far back as the Middle Ages. The museum, which was built between 1931 and 1936, stands on the former home of Theodor Herzl, who was the founding father of Zionism and responsible for developing the idea of a modern Jewish state.