AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Barokní dům New York is a striking late-Baroque corner house in the small West Bohemian spa town of Lázně Kynžvart, listed as a cultural monument under the name "Jewish Trading House New York." Built around 1770 by the Jewish merchant Joel Baruch, its cellars may conceal a medieval ritual bath — the mikveh — and possibly the remains of the region's first synagogue, making this one of the oldest Jewish architectural monuments in the area.↗↗
The house takes its whimsical American name not from any transatlantic connection but from a merchant's daughter who emigrated to the United States in the mid-19th century — a detail that gives a quiet corner of the Slavkov Forest a touch of unexpected global storytelling.↗
A Baroque Face with Deep Jewish Roots
Standing at the corner of Potoční street in the heart of what was once Kynžvart's Jewish quarter, the Baroque House New York is a two-storey building whose elegant plastered façade and sweeping gable roof date from a late-Baroque reconstruction completed in 1771. Its builder, Joel Baruch, was a privileged court Jew of the Metternich estate and a prominent member of the local Jewish community. His family's commercial success would eventually take them to Prague and Vienna, where descendants were ennobled as the "von Königswarter" banking dynasty.
