The largest active Ashkenazi synagogue in Bucharest, founded by Polish Jews in 1846 and rebuilt in 1903-1909 with extravagant interior frescoes in a Moorish-Andalusian style. The vaulted ceiling, the gilded ark, and the carved wooden women's gallery survived both the Iron Guard pogroms of 1941 and the Communist neglect that followed.
The synagogue is open for visitors on weekdays (closed Saturdays for Shabbat); ring at the gate. A small exhibit upstairs documents the history of Romanian Jewry. The Holocaust Memorial of Romania is a short walk away. The whole neighbourhood — once the Jewish quarter — was largely demolished under Ceaușescu, but the synagogue and a handful of other buildings survived.