A special ceremony in Berlin Friday marked the reopening of Germany's biggest synagogue after a year of work to restore it.

The building, which is topped with a blue dome, has been described as one of the jewels of Germany's Jewish community. Berlin has the biggest Jewish community in the country, with 12,000 registered members and eight synagogues.

The synagogue was built in 1904 and set ablaze on Kristallnacht — the infamous night in 1938 when many Jewish temples, homes and businesses were set on fire by the Nazis and their sympathizers.

But it was not as badly damaged as other Jewish prayer houses and was reinaugurated in 1953.

The building fell into disrepair under Communism, but since the fall of the Berlin Wall it was rebuilt with the help of the Berlin city authorities, lottery money and international donations.

The building's facade and roof were renovated in 2000 for about $4 million, which was paid for by the city. The $3.7 million spent on the interior's restoration came from a city-owned lottery.

Its interior seats more than 1,000 people.

According to the Central Council of Jews in Germany, an estimated 250,000 Jews live in the country, with some 110,000 of them registered religious community members.

Before Hitler rose to power, Germany's Jewish community was estimated at 560,000.

Ruth Golan, the architect in charge of the restoration, said she and her partner, Kay Zareh, tried to restore the original appearance by studying the few pictures that remain from the synagogue's opening in 1904.

"We used scalpels to take off layer after layer from the ceiling to restore the original paintings,'' said Golan, who was born in Jerusalem but has spent most of her adulthood in Germany. "Unfortunately, because of the limited budget, some of the ornaments could not be restored.''

With files from the Associated Press