Originally Founded in 1520, the Talmud Torah Hagadol Synagogue was part of a complex including a religious school, libraries, an asylum, and even a bakery The synagogue was repeatedly destroyed by the fires of 1545, 1620, and 1898. Each time the community managed to rebuild it. After the fire of 1898, all the members of the community, even important persons from abroad, such as Baron Edmond de Rothschild and his wife, contributed financially to the reconstruction. Inaugurated in 1903, Talmud Torah was the biggest and most lavishly decorated synagogue in Thessaloniki. According to the newspaper L’Indépendant, it was the largest built by the Salonika Jews since their expulsion from Spain. Ιt was finally completely destroyed in the Great Fire of 1917. According to the new urban plan conceived by Ernest Hébrard, the rebuilt area would have no space for its reconstruction.