Klezmer, Exile Songs and Remembrance in a Restored Art Nouveau Synagogue — Sankt Pölten, October to December 2026

The synagogue on the Dr.-Karl-Renner-Promenade in Sankt Pölten was built in 1913 to designs by Theodor Schreier and Viktor Postelberg, in the Art Nouveau idiom that was then the language of the Austrian provinces as much as of Vienna. It was badly damaged in the November pogroms of 1938 and aryanised by the City of Sankt Pölten. Restitution to the Jewish Community of Vienna followed in 1954, a first restoration ran from 1980 to 1984, and a second campaign — 4.6 million euros, shared in equal thirds by the Austrian federal government, the Federal State of Lower Austria and the City of Sankt Pölten under the Culture St. Pölten 2024 programme — was completed in 2024. The Jewish Community of Vienna, which still owns the building, transferred its use to NÖ Museum GmbH, and it reopened in April 2024 as the Former Synagogue St. Pölten: a place of remembrance and a cultural venue rather than an active place of worship.

Its autumn and winter programme turns the restored prayer hall into a concert room. The season runs from the beginning of October to the beginning of December, and it alternates music with the work of remembrance the building was reopened to carry.

The programme

• Saturday 3 October 2026, 6pm–11pm — ORF Long Night of Museums: the synagogue takes part in the Austria-wide late opening.
• Sunday 4 October 2026, 11am — The Minetti Quartett plays chamber music for the Mozartgemeinde Niederösterreich. €25, students €5.
• Wednesday 14 October 2026, 4pm — BINA, a circus festival performance with Ron Beeri and Yuval Oz. Forty minutes, suitable from age three.
• Thursday 15 October 2026, 6.30pm — Der Šenster Gob, an acoustic klezmer folk quartet from Prague, with the programme Majority of Minorities. €22.
• Sunday 25 October 2026, 6.30pm — Serenade des Exils: Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Mahler, Korngold and Ursula Mamlok, sung by the mezzo-soprano Hagar Sharvit with strings and piano. €28.
• Wednesday 11 November 2026, 6pm — Remembering the November pogroms of 1938, a lecture and concert under the title Gedenken braucht Forschung. Free, with a registration card.
• Thursday 3 December 2026, 6pm — Yentes Kuzines with Roman Grinberg: a Hanukkah concert for five voices and piano. €22.

Alongside the concerts, the exhibition Stolen Sanctity — Judaica from Lower Austria is open until 15 November 2026.

Practical details

• When: 3 October to 3 December 2026
• Where: Ehemalige Synagoge St. Pölten, Dr.-Karl-Renner-Promenade 22, 3100 Sankt Pölten, Austria
• Admission to the building: €5, reduced €4; ages 7 to 18 €3.50; under 7 free; family card €12; guided tours €5.50 per person. Concerts are priced separately.
• Tickets: the webshop of the Lower Austrian museums, shop.museumnoe.at
• Contact: +43 2742 90 80 90-972

The Institute for Jewish History of Austria has occupied the cantor’s house next door since 1988, and its director, Martha Keil, is the academic director of the site. The Former Synagogue is a subsidiary of NÖ Museum Betriebs GmbH. Cultural Heritage Online lists this season for readers following Art Nouveau and Jewish heritage in Lower Austria.