assisted by Milan Šlang, was completed in 1926. In 1929 the interior was remodelled after the design of the architect Milutin Jovanović. It functioned as the place of worship for the Serbian-Jewish Congregation of the Ashkenazi rite until 1941. In 1941–44, during the Nazi occupation of Belgrade, it was desecrated and turned into a brothel. After the war it was restored to its original function as a place of worship for both congregations of Belgrade’s Jews. The building was designed in the style of academism with predominant neo –Renaissance elements. In elevation it shows a semi-basement, the ground floor, the ground-floor gallery and two upper floors. The interior was designed to combine multiple functions in response to the Jewish community’s various needs: worship, education, office and dwelling spaces. This concept is based on the religious and social role of a synagogue, which needs to combine three basic functions: as a place of worship, a place of study and a place for community meetings. The semi-basement houses a kosher kitchen, a dining room and service rooms. The central ground-floor area with the gallery, being intended for ritual purposes, is preeminent both symbolically and religiously. At its side, separated by a wall, are offices, a study room and a meeting room. The two upper floors contain living quarters. The prayer space is partitioned with two rows of columns which support the gallery. The front façade is symmetrical and well-proportioned, with the decorative accent placed on the gable with David’s shield, a six-pointed star enclosed in an oculus. The central portion of the façade features four tall round-arched windows rising through the ground-floor and gallery levels. The first-floor zone, separated from the lower by a shallow stringcourse, is set back, providing a parapeted terrace. It is fitted with four regularly spaced round-arched windows between which, according to the original blueprints of 1923, were ornamental medallions. The most simply articulated second-floor zone with its eight round-arched windows is separated from the first floor by a decorative stringcourse. In addition to these elements of the front elevation which lend an impression of well-balanced horizontality, verticality is accentuated by two protruding two-storey end bays topped with small towers lightened by arched openings on three sides. The towers, a clear allusion to a fortification and the character of Solomon's temple, are a frequently used motif in synagogue architecture, symbolising Jachin and Boaz, the pillars of Solomon's Temple.