On the site of the Great Synagogue was originally a wooden synagogue, which was destroyed in a fire in 1696. In its place the large stone fortress synagogue was built, starting in 1742. It was damaged in a fire which destroyed most of Brody in 1859. Repairs began at the beginning of the next century, and in 1935 it was registered as a cultural monument and renovated.[6]
The Great Synagogue held a large collection of Jewish ceremonial art,[7] and its interior was richly decorated.[8] The former synagogue building is listed as a monument of Architectural Heritage of National Importance of Ukraine.
The former synagogue was partially restored in the 1960s; and it served as a warehouse, during the Soviet era. Further restorations began in 1991, to adaptat the building into an art gallery. However, the cost became prohibitive. The northern and southern extensions of the building have been lost. In 1988 the western wall collapsed, and since 2006 the vault also began to collapse.[1] In 2021, the roof began to collapse;[4] and there was criticism that funds from a 2019 concert, to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of Brody writer, Joseph Roth, that included a performance of Symphony No. 3 "Kaddish" by Leonard Bernstein, had not been applied to benefit the restoration of the former synagogue.[9]
^Piechotka, Maria; Piechotka, Kazimierz (2017). Heaven's Gates.: Masonry synagogues in the territories of the former Polish–Lithuania Commonwealth. Warsaw: Polish Institute of World Art Studies & POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. p. 479 ff. ISBN978-83-942344-3-0.
^Davidowitz, David (1943). "The Synagogue in Brody". In Klausner, Yocheved (ed.). The Synagogues in Poland and Their Destruction. Translated by Kutten, Moshe. Jerusalem: Mosad HaRav Kook and Yad VaShem – via JewishGen.
^Kuzmany, Börries (2017). Brody: A Galician Border City in the Long Nineteenth Century. Studia Judaeoslavica. Vol. 10. Leiden: Brill. p. 327. doi:10.1163/9789004334847. ISBN978-90-04-33484-7.
