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Palace of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with all things oriental. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-nineteenth century, part of a widening vocabulary of articulated decorative ornament drawn from historical sources beyond familiar classical and Gothic modes. Little distinction was made in European and American practice between motifs drawn from Ottoman Turkey or from Andalusia.

Moorish Revival in Europe[link]

Gran teatro falla, Cadiz, Spain

In Spain, the country conceived as the place of origin of Moorish ornamentation, the interest in this sort of architecture fluctuated from province to province. The mainstream was called Neo-Mudéjar. In Catalonia, Antoni Gaudí's profound interest in Mudéjar heritage governed the design of his early works, such as Casa Vicens or Astorga Palace. In Andalusia, the Neo-Mudéjar style gained belated popularity in connection with the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and was epitomized by Plaza de España (Seville) and Gran Teatro Falla in Cádiz. In Madrid, the Neo-Mudéjar was a characteristic style of housing and public buildings at the turn of the century, while the 1920s return of interest to the style resulted in such buildings as Las Ventas bull ring and Diario ABC office.

Although Carlo Bugatti employed Moorish arcading among the exotic features of his furniture, shown at the 1902 exhibition at Turin, by that time the Moorish Revival was very much on the wane everywhere but Imperial Russia, where the shell-encrusted Morozov House in Moscow (a stylisation of a Portuguese palace in Sintra) and the Neo-Mameluk palaces of Koreiz exemplify the continuing development of the style, and in Bosnia, where the Austrian government commissioned a range of Neo-Moorish structures. This included application of ornamentations and other Moorish design strategies neither of which had much to do with prior architectural direction of indigenous Bosnian architecture. The central post office in Sarajevo, for example, follows distinct formal characteristics of design like clarity of form, symmetry, and proportion while the interior followed the same doctrine. The Oriental Institute in Sarajevo is an example of Pseudo Moorish architectural language using decorations and pointed arches while still integrating other formal elements into the design.

Lithography of the Moorish Castle, a theater built in Moorish Architecture. Location was Frederiksberg, Denmark

The "Moorish" garden structures built at Sheringham Hall, Norfolk, ca. 1812, were an unusual touch at the time, a parallel to chinoiserie, as a dream vision of fanciful whimsy, not meant to be taken seriously; however, as early as 1826, Edward Blore used Islamic arches, domes of various size and shapes and other details of Near Eastern Islamic architecture to great effect in his design for Alupka Palace in Crimea, a cultural setting that had already been penetrated by authentic Ottoman styles. By the mid-19th century, the style was adopted by the Jews of Central Europe, who associated Mudéjar architectural forms with the golden age of Jewry in medieval Muslim Spain. As a consequence, Moorish Revival spread around the globe as a preferred style of synagogue architecture.

The development of the style in the United States[link]

In the United States, Washington Irving's travel sketch, Tales of the Alhambra (1832) first brought Moorish Andalusia into readers' imaginations; one of the first neo-Moorish structures was Iranistan, a mansion of P. T. Barnum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Constructed in 1848 and demolished by fire ten years later, this architectural extravaganza "sprouted bulbous domes and horseshoe arches".^[1] In the 1860s, the style spread across America, with Olana, the painter Frederic Edwin Church's house overlooking the Hudson River, Castle Garden in Jacksonville and Nutt's Folly in Natchez, Mississippi usually cited among the more prominent examples. After the American Civil War, Moorish or Turkish smoking rooms achieved some popularity. There were Moorish details in the interiors created for the Henry Osborne Havemeyer residence on Fifth Avenue by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The 1914 Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon incorporates Turkish design features, as well as French, English, and Italian ones; the smoking room in particular has notable Moorish revival elements. In 1937, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota added unusual minarets and Moorish domes, unusual because the polychrome decorations are made out of corn cobs of various colors assembled like mosaic tiles to create patterns. The 1891 Tampa Bay Hotel, whose minarets and Moorish domes are now the pride of the University of Tampa, was a particularly extravagant example of the style. Other schools with Moorish Revival buildings include Yeshiva University in New York City. George Washington Smith used the style in his design for the 1920s Isham Beach Estate in Santa Barbara, California.^[2]

Moorish Revival theaters in the U.S.A.[link]

Fox Theatre (Atlanta, Georgia)

Theatres outside the United States[link]

Theater	Photo	City and State	Country	Architect	Date
State/Forum Theatre		Melbourne, Victoria	Australia	Bohringer, Taylor & Johnson	1929
Eastern Arcade (former Palace/Metro Theatre)		Melbourne, Victoria	Australia	Hyndman & Bates	1894 (demolished in 2008)
Ukraine/Odessa Philharmonic Theater		Odessa, Ukraine	Ukraine	Alexander Bernardazzi	1898

Odessa Philharmonic Theater

Moorish revival synagogues[link]

Sofia Synagogue, Bulgaria

Spanish Synagogue (Prague)

Europe[link]

• Munich synagogue, by Friedrich von Gärtner, 1832 was the earliest Moorish revival synagogue (destroyed on Kristallnacht)
• Semper Synagogue, by Gottfried Semper, Dresden, 1839–40 (destroyed on Kristallnacht)
• Leopoldstädter Tempel, Vienna, Austria, 1853-58 (destroyed on Kristallnacht)
• Dohány Street Synagogue, Budapest (Hungary), 1854–1859
• Leipzig synagogue 1855 (destroyed on Kristallnacht)
• Glockengasse synagogue, Cologne, Germany, 1855-61 (destroyed on Kristallnacht)
• New Synagogue, by Eduard Knoblauch, Berlin, 1859–1866
• Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, Tbilisi, Georgia, 1896
• Tempel Synagogue, Cracow, Poland, 1860–62
• Cetate Neologue Synagogue, Timişoara, Romania, by Ignaz Schumann, 1864–65
• Zagreb Synagogue, 1867
• The Great Synagogue of Stockholm, Sweden, by Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander, 1867–1870
• Spanish Synagogue, Prague, 1868
• Rumbach Street synagogue, Budapest, Hungary, 1872
• Czernowitz Synagogue, Czernowitz, 1873
• Great Synagogue of Florence, Tempio Maggiore, Florence, 1874–82
• Princes Road Synagogue, Liverpool, England, 1874
• Manchester Jewish Museum, built as a Sephardic synagogue, Manchester, England, 1874
• Great Synagogue in Pilsen, Pilsen, Bohemia, Czech Republic, 1888
• The Grand Choral Synagogue, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888
• Fabric New Synagogue in Timişoara,Romania, by Lipot Baumhorn, 1889
• Prešov synagogue, Prešov, Slovakia, 1898
• Vrbové synagogue, Vrbové, Slovakia, 1883
• Košice synagogue, Košice, Slovakia, 1899, interior of Rundbogenstil building
• Sarajevo Synagogue 1902
• Jubilee Synagogue, Prague, Czech Republic, 1906
• Groningen Synagogue, Groningen, Netherlands, 1906
• Sofia Synagogue, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1909

United States[link]

Isaac M. Wise Temple, Cincinnati, Ohio

• Isaac M. Wise Temple,( also known as the Plum Street Temple) Cincinnati, Ohio, 1865
• Congregation Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia, 1866 (no longer standing)
• Temple Emanu-El, on Fifth Avenue at 43rd Street, Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York built in 1868, designed by Leopold Eidlitz, assisted by Henry Fernbach, (no longer standing)
• Temple B’nai Sholom, Quincy, Illinois, 1870
• Central Synagogue, Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York, 1872
• Vine Street Temple, Nashville, Tennessee, 1874
• B'nai Israel Synagogue (Baltimore), Maryland, 1876
• Temple Adath Israel, Owensboro, Kentucky, 1877
• Prince Street Synagogue (Oheb Shalom,) Newark, New Jersey, 1884
• Eldridge Street Synagogue, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York, 1887
• Congregation Beth Israel of Portland, Oregon, 1888 (no longer standing)
• Park East Synagogue, Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York, 1889
• Gemiluth Chessed, Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1891
• Temple Beth-El, Corsicana, Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas, 1898–1900
• Temple Sinai (Sumter, South Carolina), 1912
• Ohabei Shalom, Brookline, Massachusetts, 1925
• Congregation Ohab Zedek, Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, 1926
• Congregation Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia, 1928

Latin America[link]

• Sephardic Temple, Barracas district, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Churches and Cathedrals[link]

Immaculate Conception Church (New Orleans)

• Immaculate Conception Church (New Orleans), (a.k.a. Jesuit Church) is a striking example of Moorish Revival Architecture. Across the street was the College of the Immaculate Conception, housing a chapel with two stained glass domes. The chapel was disassembled and about half of it (one of the stained glass domes, eleven of the windows) was installed in the present Jesuit High School.
• The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar (1825–1832) an early example of Moorish revival architecture is located in Gibraltar, which formed part of Moorish Al-Andalus between 711 and 1462 AD.

Shriners Temples[link]

Tripoli Shrine Temple, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Shriners, a fraternal organization, often chose a Moorish Revival style for their Temples. Architecturally notable Shriners Temples include:

• New York City Center, now used as a concert hall
• Shrine Auditorium—Al Malaikah Temple, Los Angeles, California, by architects G. Albert Lansburgh and John C. Austin in 1926, on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Medinah Temple, Chicago, built by architects Huehl and Schmidt in 1912, now a Bloomingdales.
• Tripoli Shrine Temple, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1929.
• Almas Temple, 1315 K St NW, Washington. D.C., 1929.
• Zembo Mosque, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Acca Temple Shrine, Richmond, Virginia, (currently the Landmark Theater, colloquially known as 'The Mosque'), designed by Marcellus Wright, Sr. in association with Charles M. Robinson and Charles Custer Robinson in 1925 and completed in 1926.^[3]
• Algeria Shrine Temple, Helena, Montana
• El Zaribah Shrine Auditorium, Phoenix, Arizona
• The Scottish Rite Temple in Santa Fe, New Mexico, while not a Shrine Temple, is a Masonic building that uses the Moorish Revival architectural style. 1912^[4]

Factories[link]

• The Zacherlfabrik, Vienna, 1892
• Templeton's Carpet Factory, Glasgow, Scotland, 1889 (normally described as Venetian Gothic).
• Former Yenidze Cigarette Factory, Dresden, Germany, 1908 (here, the "minarets" are used to disguise smokestacks)

Assorted examples[link]

• 

  Great Synagogue, Plzeň (Czech Republic)

• BudapestSynagogue.jpg

  Dohány Street Synagogue, Budapest (Hungary)

• 

  National Library, Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

• 

  Mostar Gymnasium from 1902, Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

• 

  Gran Teatro Falla, Cádiz (Spain)

• 

  The Isaac M. Wise Temple, Cincinnati, Ohio

• MoorishSantaFe2.jpg

  Scottish Rite Temple, Santa Fe, New Mexico

• 

  The former Tampa Bay Hotel, Tampa, Florida

• MoorishSantaFe1.jpg

  Scottish Rites Temple,, Santa Fe

• 

  Sofia Synagogue (Bulgaria)

• 

  The Grand Choral Synagogue, St. Petersburg (Russia)

• 

  the Fabric New Synagogue in Timişoara,(Romania),1889,(nowadays in decay, may be in danger of collapse)

• 

  the Main Neologue Synagogue in Cetate quarter of Timişoara, (Romania),1865.

• 

  Central Synagogue in New York City

See also[link]

Architecture portal

• Neo-Mudéjar
• Moorish architecture
• Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture
• Sultan Abdul Samad Building - famous landmark in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Naylor, David, Great American Movie Theaters, The Preservation Press, Washington, D.C., 1987
• Thorne, Ross, Picture Palace Architecture in Australia, Sun Books Pty. Ltd., South Melbourne, Australia, 1976

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Moorish Revival architecture

Moorish Revival in New York Architecture http://www.nyc-architecture.com/STYLES/STY-MoorishRev.htm