Not many people know that this lovely building, which today hosts national musical concerts and performances, was built to house Baku’s first synagogue, the Great Choral Synagogue. That was built in 1910 on donations from philanthropists and wealthy Jewish communities in Azerbaijan on land provided free of charge on the present-day Rashid Behbudov Street by the Baku City Council in 1901. The stately building was designed to resemble the Second Temple, with an Ionic order portico at the front and two stone tablets and a Star of David at the top of the columns.