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Cordoba Synagogue

The Córdoba synagogue is a historic edifice in the Jewish Quarter of Córdoba, Spain, built in 1315. The synagogue’s small size points to it having possibly been the private synagogue of a wealthy man. It is also possible that Córdoba’s complex of buildings was a yeshivah, kollel, or study hall. Another possibility is that this was the synagogue of a trade guild, which converted a residence or one of the work rooms into the synagogue. The synagogue was decorated according to the best Mudejar tradition.

After the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the synagogue was seized by the authorities and converted into a hospital for people suffering from rabies (hydrophobia), the Hospital Santo Quiteria. In 1588, the building was acquired by the shoemakers guild, who used it as a community center and small chapel, changing the patron saint of the building to Santos Crispin-Crispian, the patron saint of shoemakers. It was declared a National Monument in 1885.

Since then it has undergone several phases of the restoration including that of Felix Hernandez in 1929. In 1935, the Spanish authorities marked the eight-hundredth anniversary of Maimonides’ birth by changing the name of the square in which the synagogue is located to Tiberias Square, honoring the great native-born philosopher, who is buried in Tiberias. At this celebration the first Jewish prayer service in 443 years to occur openly and with full knowledge of the authorities was held at the synagogue. Another restoration was begun in 1977 for the reopening of the building in 1985 to celebrate the 850th anniversary of Maimonides birth. It is the only synagogue in Córdoba to escape destruction during years of persecution. Although clearly no longer functioning as a house of worship, it is open to the public.

Cordoba Jewish Quarter

The Judería de Córdoba, also known as the Jewish Quarter of Córdoba, is the area of the Spanish city of Córdoba in which the Jews lived between the 10th and 15th centuries. It is located in the Historic centre of Córdoba, northeast of the Mezquita Catedral (the Mosque-Cathedral), in the area of the following streets: Deanes, Manríquez, Tomás Conde, Judíos, Almanzor and Romero.

It is one of the most visited areas by tourists given that, besides the Mosque, you can see monuments such as the Sinagoga (Synagogue), the Zoco Municipal (Zoco Municipal Market) or the Museo Taurino (Bull-fighting Museum), among others. It is part of the historic centre of Córdoba which was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994.

St. Teresa Convent

The St. Teresa Convent is located on the streets of Via de la Dama, allowing access to the square where the convent of La Santa is located. This monastic foundation was assembled over what used to be the house where Teresa de Jesús was born, a top writer on Spanish Golden Century literature and Christian mysticism. Teresa was a judeoconverso, a jew that converted to catholicism, because she is closely related to a family of new Christians in Toledo. The Convent of St. Teresa was built between 1629 and 1636, with a magnificent example of the Carmelite style. Underground, there is a Santa Teresa Museum that contains pieces which are still relatively unknown to the general public and are extremely valuable. On the other side of the Santa gate, the Mysticism Interpretation Centre is organised into four rooms, each corresponing to the three universal elements established by Saint Catherine of Siena: being by yourself, being with God, and being with the world, as well as a fourth being identified with tradition. The Hebrew origin of Saint Teresa of Jesus or of Saint John of the Cross, both suffering with some problems when they started to practice their faith, shows how conversion was actually an option accepted by part of the Jewish community.

Avila Jewish Quarter

Out of the numerous Jewish communities in Spain, the Juderia of Avila plays a special role in the history of Spanish Jewish rights. The Jews of Sevilla were not subjected to a great deal of discriminatory behaviors unlike their brothers in other cities. They served the city as being distributors of fine clothing and other textiles. However, despite this good fortune, the Jewish quarter itself had not stood the test of time. There are few traces of this community but what has been remembered through documents and records has been identified and preserved. The building where the Rebbe’s house once stood has since been converted into a hotel. However, the latest victory has been the unearthing of the local medieval Jewish cemetery just outside the 11th century walls of the city!

Mosén Rubí Chapel: Former Synagogue

The historian on Sephardic themes, D. A. Halperin put forth the theory that the current Mosén Rubí chapel was originally built in 1462 as a major Synagogue and that later, when it had already been converted into a church, it was added to the hospital, following the will of María Herrera, the daughter of Diego Martínez de Herrera, a converted Jew, on October 2nd, 1512. D. A. Halperin wanted to justify this speculation by stating that his nephew, Diego de Bracamonte who implemented Maria’s will, built a wooden hospital and the chambers of the chaplains adjacent to an existing temple. Diego de Bracamonte transcribed an engraving that is inside the Chapel. The message was found to be the date of construction relating to the Jewish calendar and records the existence of a Star of David on the northwest front of the building.

Jewish Cemetery of Incarnation

The Ávila Jewish cemetery is loacted behind the Encarnación convent, giving the name Jewish Cemetery of Incarnation. The foundation of the cemterary was placed in the year 1511, when Beatriz Guiera acquired the houses of Pilón de la Mimbre, originally found, at that time, alongside the Gate of St. Vincent, alongside the Lomo synagogue. Here, Beatriz Guiera bought a Jewish Graveyard which was outside the city walls, and built his convent. During the 2012 archaeological works, many funerary structures were found. The architecture that was uncovered belonged to the graveyard of the Jewish alijama, whose community buried their dead with tombs in rows, alligned O-E, directed to the sun at the time of departure. In this cemtery, two types of tombs were established: staggered, presenting a step on either its north and south fronts, and tombs dug into a simple pit. The tombs had a sugnal on the outside, but the ones that don’t have it were the tomb buried after the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.

Lomo Synagogue

While theories suggest that the current Moses Rubí chapel was the former Main Synagogue, others believe that the Main synagogue could be that of Lomo which was situated in the present Esteban Domingo street. Documentary evidence pertaining to the synagogue place it in the late 15th century alongside the first incarnation convent, already converted into a church going by the name of Todos los Santos (All Saints). A Royal Decree issued in Madrid on December 6th, 1495 by the Catholic Monarchs states that in 1482 doctor Pedro Sánchez Frías, the Chief Magistrate of the city, took possession after the segregation of the Jewish community to the Telares District in compliance with a decree by the Courts of Toledo in 1480, of certain synagogues which the Jews had in Ávila.

Belforad Synagogue

The Chapel of Our Lady of Las Nieves, on Reyes Catolicos Street, formerly Cal de Andrín, was erected by the virrein of Sicily, Mrs. María Dávila, on the site occupied by the synagogue of Ávila called Belforad. The interior of the chapel is presided by a magnificent relief of alabaster by Juan Rodríguez and Lucas Giraldo. In the popular tradition the name of Casa del Rabino was kept for the house that was located in the Callejón de las Nieves (formerly the Synagogue Hospice) and which was connected to the temple. There are some painted lines that some have interpreted as a fragment of a Star of David, in what was the door that would connect the house and the synagogue. It has also been wanted to see as another symbol, the cross engraved in one of the jambs of the door, sign with which the new Christians marked their houses to avoid problems in convulsive times.

Reyes Católicos’ Street

Accessing the interior of the city wall via the Alcázar Gate and after passing through Don Gerónimo and Alemania streets we reach Reyes Católicos street, previously known as Cal de Andrín street in the middle ages. Reyes Católicos street possibly located one of the city synagogues in the same place where today the ermita de Nuestra Señora de las Nieves (hermitage of Our Lady of the Snows) can be found. This street was the location for the majority of Jewish trades and workshops, although today, its buildings relate more to the 19th and early 20th Centuries.

San Pedro Church

Saint Peter’s Church started being built in 1100, in a Romanesque style, and since then, the building and its decoration have evolved. On the exterior, the triple header, an apse on each of the naves, brings together an amazing sculptoric repertoire with vegetal, fauna and geometric motifs, also including religious scenes like the history of Cain and Abel or the Temptation of Adam. Altogether this would be the first construction stage. At the second of these stages the transept walls were built and at the third, the lateral naves. The artistic criteria gradually changed with time, and the arches started to become evident as the preface to the Gothic tendencies that came to show. Finally, upon completing this Romanesque stage, the dome was raised. St. Peter’s Church is connected to a painful past for the Hebrew community: in Saint Peter’s court, a judgement was celebrated – the incrimiation of the Jews in the case of the Holy Child of the Guards, showing the anti-semitism in the fifteenth century. A child would be taken to receive a series of terrible actions to evoke withcraft, and whomever was guilty, would be sentence to death. This event portrayed the rarity of the coexistence between Jews and Christians in this era. Since then, St. Peter’s Church was declared a National Monument in 1914.

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