Coloured postcard depicting a synagogue in Rzeszów's Nowe Miasto district. It is based on a photograph taken by Edward Janusz, one of Rzeszów's most famous and respected photographers who lived there on the turn of the 20th century. In addition to the southern façade of the synagogue building itself, the postcard also shows a section of the square and the townhouses adjacent to the synagogue. On the reverse of the postcard, at the top, there is the inscription: "Pocztówka" ["Postcard"], and on the left, along the shorter side, in small print: "L. Bieńkowski, Rzeszów, 1912".
The synagogue depicted on the postcard was called Nowomiejska Synagogue or New School by Jews of Rzeszów. It was built between 1705 and 1712 to a design by an Italian architect Giovanni Battista Belotti, who was considered the court architect of the Lubomirski family, owners of Rzeszów. The construction of the synagogue was financed entirely by the Jewish community, which borrowed money for the project from, among others, two Rzeszów convents – the Bernardines and the Piarists. The original appearance of the Nowomiejska Synagogue is known thanks to Karol Henryk Wiedemann, who in 1762 painted a contemporary perspective plan of Rzeszów. In addition to the Nowomiejska Synagogue, the Wiedemann's Plan also included the Staromiejska synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. Over the centuries, as a result of warfare and fires, the synagogue has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. Its most significant reconstruction took place after the fire that destroyed the town in 1842, when not only the body of the building was changed, but also the roof, which was transformed from a tented to a gabled roof with gables facing east and west.
During the Second World War, the Germans destroyed all the furnishings in the synagogue. They used the devastated building first as a stable and then as a military storehouse, to eventually set it on fire in 1944, immediately before leaving the town. In 1963, the former synagogue was rebuilt according to a design by architect Wacław Schwarz. In 1965, the Art Exhibition Office was established in the building.
