The archaeologists have been able to reveal the main prayer hall and colourful terrazzo flooring.
They also found a number of plaques marking the seats of worshippers.
Seat plaque with the inscription: 'Gitel Klachek, wife of the late Yechezkel, Shamash d’Mata.' (Jon Seligman, Vilna Great Synagogue and Shulhoyf Research Project and the Israel Antiquities Authority)[Missing Credit]
One plaque marks a seat donated by ‘Gitel Klachek, wife of the late Yechezkel, Shamash d’Mata’.
The Klacheks were a powerful family in the community and owned businesses in the streets near the synagogue.
The Great Synagogue of Vilna in the 1930s (Israel Antiquities Authority)[Missing Credit]
The excavation has been led by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Lithuanian cultural heritage organisation Kultūros Paveldo Išsaugojimo Pajėgos (KPIP), with funding from the Good Will Foundation and in cooperation with the Lithuanian Jewish Community.
Excavation co-director Jon Seligman told the Times of Israel: “This was the most important synagogue of Lithuanian Jewry for several centuries.
“It’s what represented them as a people and formed a part of their identity. At a time when Jews comprised 40 percent of the city, this was their cathedral.
A recreation of what the inside of the Great Synagogue of Vilna looked like. (Israel Antiquities Authority)[Missing Credit]
“It was the very largest building of its type in Europe. We are talking about a nine-bay synagogue with four central columns, and it was the most dominant building of the area.”
The synagogue was built in 1633 to replace an older wooden synagogue which is believed to have been erected in 1573.
The new synagogue stood for more than 300 years, but in 1941 when the Nazis invaded Lithuania, it was severely damaged.
It remained then, a shadow of what it once was, until it was demolished by the Soviet regime in 1957.
Experts clean the bimah. (Jon Seligman, Vilna Great Synagogue and Shulhoyf Research Project, and the Israel Antiquities Authority)[Missing Credit]
A school was built where it had stood, burying its 324-year history.
Last year, the school was demolished, after being vacant for a decade, allowing excavations on the main part of the synagogue to take place.
The synagogue was built with its floor one story below ground level in order to increase the interior height. This 17th century architectural decision is the reason so much has remained.
Seligman explained: “The bottom floor was saved because it was lower than the school building itself.”
In a joint statement with Justinas Račas of the KPIP, Seligman told the Times of Israel: “The main prayer hall, paved with colourful terrazzo floors decorated with floral and geometric patterns; plaques bearing names; and many other finds… offer us a moving, almost personal encounter with the people who prayed here and with the community life that developed around the synagogue over the course of centuries.”
Jews have had a long history in Lithuania, first arriving in the 14th century. By the time the Second World War began, there were 160 synagogues in Vilnius.
Steps up to the bimah (Image: YouTube)[Missing Credit]
Today there is only one, serving a population of just 2,000 Jews.
Seligman said the site will not be restored as a synagogue as there is now no need for one, but instead will be developed as a heritage and memorial site for the community.
“There is a need to provide memory both to the synagogue, its importance, its significance, and also to the people who lived there and prayed there,” Seligman said.
