The synagogue in Rymanów deserves to be described in detail. Feliks Kiryk in his book „The town of Rymanów from the 15th century to the end of the 17th century” („Miasto Rymanów od XV do schyłku XVIII w.”) writes that the existence of the masonry synagogue was confirmed in the Rymanow parish files only in 1744: „Judeai in hac civitatete Rymanowiensi reperriunriur plures, habentque aedificatem synagogam muratam”[1.1].

Priest Przemysław Macnar in his note “New synagogue?” („Synagoga młodsza?”) printed in „Nasz Rymanów” no 54, wrote that from the official record issued after the visit of Bishop Jan Krzysztof Szembek in 1772, it resulted that only then the Rymanów Jews applied for a permit to construct a masonry synagogue „...ut exttructae murrataeque Synagogae suee famltatetem...”.

But according to the information dated 1712, the Rymanów Jews borrowed 300 PLN from Jan Gorzkowski, the altar attendant from Krosno, and secured the loan with, among others, „synagoga murata”. Therefore we know for sure that there was a masonry synagogue in Rymanów in 1712.

Faced with these irreconcilable contradictions I share the point of view of Stanisław Szczęk[1.2], an architect from Krakow, who has examined over 60 synagogues in Lesser Poland and on the basis of comparative analysis he has come to the conclusion, that the Rymanów synagogue was built at the turn of the 16th to 17th centuries. Its form is more archaic from the Kupp’s synagogue in Krakow from 1648, and from a certain point of view the architectonic solutions implemented there are more archaic than in the Rzeszów synagogue from 1610. Nevertheless, Szczęk allows as well the possibility that the Krakow’s Kupp’s synagogue could serve as a model synagogue and the Rymanów synagogue was built a long time after it, even though, as he emphasizes, it seems to be the older one.

We cannot exclude, however, that the entry in the official record issued after the visit of Bishop Jan Krzysztof Szembek in 1772 did not concern the existing synagogue, but in fact it referred to Bet Hamidrash, which Jews also wanted to be a brick building. The Rymanów’s magistrates court records under the year 1700 list, among others, Lewek, the synagogue teacher, which means that already in those times there was a Jewish religious school of some sort open in the town. We have to remember, that for the Jewish community a school is much more important than a synagogue, and that these two terms were used interchangeably.

Built with river stones, sandstone pebbles and burnt bricks, it was integrated with the town’s defensive system. The main structure is based on rectangular shape, sized 17 x 21 meters, with a wall 11 meters high and 2 meters thick. Originally it had a hip roof covered with shingle. At the end of the 19th century it was reconstructed. The shape of the roof was changed - it was covered with roof plate and the ceiling was transformed from barrel vault to Klein vault. The bimah, supported by four columns sized 50 x 50 centimeters, 8 meters high, and 2,5 meters distant from one another, also comes from the reconstruction period. The capitals of the columns are made of plaster and represent Vienna eclectism. At the same time, the north-eastern corner of the synagogue was strengthened with an embankment.

Alongside with the synagogue, a prayer room for women was built, which constituted an additional room by the southern wall. It does not exist any more (it was pulled down in the 1950s ), but the symmetrical layout of windows connecting it with the synagogue’s nave, as well as the lintel and windows’ embrasures prove it was there. The western additional room was built at the end of the 19th century during a general reconstruction of the synagogue. At present it does not exist any more.

The synagogue’s tower, built on circular plan, is partly integrated in the nave’s block. It has the largest diameter among all existing historical synagogue towers from Lesser Poland. It is a masonry tower made only of stone. Inside there was a wooden staircase. It could serve as a prison – carcer Judaicum. Under the Rymanów tower there are no dungeons as, for example, in Lesko.

The synagogue is oriented in one direction. On the western wall there is a niche, which used to house the Aron Kodesh. At the height of the altar cabinet, in the blind windows, there are inscriptions in Hebrew, painted with glue paint. In the middle of the third storey there are wall paintings also made with glue technique. There are the paintings of an eagle and a leopard from the “Great-grandfathers’ Allegory” (“Przypowieść Praojców”) and on the western wall – a scene of prayer by the Wailing Wall, and a scene representing David’s palace. As Zusje Efron, director of the Mishkan Le Omanut w Ein Horod Museum in Israel, has noticed, the author of the painting most probably based his work on a postcard. He believed to be painting David’s palace, but in fact he painted the Carmelites monastery in Jerusalem. In 2004 the synagogue’s ruin was taken over by the Association of Jewish Religious Communities in the Republic of Poland with the aim of restoring it according to its original shape and cultural character.The Rymanów Jews Association from New York and rabbi Menachem Abraham Reich initiated this undertaking[1.3]. On the 27th of May 2005, a day before the 190th anniversary of tzadik Menachem Mendel’s death, in the partly renovated synagogue numerous Hasidim from Poland, Israel and the USA said prayers.

The synagogue used to constitute the centre of the Jewish district, next to it there was the rabbi’s palace from the beginning of the 19th century, a cheder, a house for poor Hasidim, a hospital and ritual baths building by the river. Those buildins were destroyed during World War II and shortly after it finished.