A unique monument of Belarusian baroque united with the Renaissance which kept elements of inside space and planning.

In Bychaŭ there was a large Jewish community which was playing a significant role in life of the city. The synagogue was built at the turn of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the seventeenth–eighteenth centuries there were only two stone monumental buildings – the castle and the synagogue, all other buildings, including religious, were wooden. The Bychaŭ synagogue is a monument of baroque architecture of the beginning of the seventeenth century. It has expressive defensive traits with elements of the Renaissance which at the same time was ceasing dominate in architecture of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This centric building measuring twenty by twenty one metres with thick walls of almost two metres, a round tower and loopholes – it defended entrance from close-fitting streets of northwest part of the city. It has straight cornices, rectangular niches. An inside hall is rectangular, divided by posts in nine equal parts. A bimah – a place on which Torah was being read – was well preserved. In our time it is in neglected state. A building of a school which belonged to the synagogue kept safe. The interior and a part of the front are lost. Converted into a school class (a brick part) and into dwelling (a wooden part).

Publication date: 14.06.2017.

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