The Basilica of San Vicente dates back to the 12th century, but it was priorly built on a place of worship that is hard to define. The Basilica is a compendium of Romanesque architecture as their construction lasted until the 13th century, additionally bearing traces of the late Romanesque, directly preceding Gothic art.
The inclusion of this monument on the Ávila list of cultural heritage related with the Jews can be put down to the extraordinary reliefs which decorate the cenotaph (13th century), where the remains of the martyrs are kept. These saints were the siblings Vicente, Sabina and Cristeta, and they suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian (around 360) by refusing to admit they had carried out pagan rites. Tradition would have it that their bodies were laid out on a rock and the first basilica was built at this site. Its construction was paid for by a Jew who had boasted of his martyrdom: when he was gloating over the torture they were being subject to, a snake wrapped around his body. He then repented, converted, and built the church.
The Basilica of San Vicente converted to Christianity, and the Jew went ahead with the erection of this place of worship where he himself would later be buried. Now, the martyrs’ remains are located in urns arranged at the Main Altar, and the cenotaph is admired for its excellent carvings. The Basilica of San Vicente was declared a National Monument in 1882.
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Ibáñez Synagogue
In 1476, the first traces of the Ibáñez Synagogue were found. The Synagogue is located in the square of Mother Candida, in front of the southern exterior of the cathedral. After its conversion into a church in memory of Corpus Christi, the Ibáñez Synagogue took over a different synagogue that stood in that piece of land in 1419. following the expulsion, all traces of the synagogue were lost, but in 1517, the old Jewish temple became the home of Bartolomé Ibáñez. Over the years, there was a lot of reconstruction, and only one porthole was preserved from the original architecture. Currently, anyone is able to see the whole synagogue from the old Jewish Cemetery, which was acquired by the congregation of the daughters of Jesus in 1920.
St. Andrew´s Gate
The outskirts of St. Andrew´s Gate constituted another of the major nuclei of the Segovian aljama. At the end of Martínez Campos street was the access to the steps which led to parapet of the wall, about 200 meters accesible, within the old guard it is shown the history of the bastion around three kilometres long erected on masonry limestone and founded on the very natural defences provided by the site. As well as getting to know the wall and the defensive system of its gates, the visit allows a tour around part of the wall-walks, whilst enjoying priceless views of the surroundings with the Jewish necropolis on the other side of the valley. Next to San Andres Gate it is located the Tourist Information Point La Muralla. Near Socorro square, where the monument to the folklorist Agapito Marazuela has now been erected, was the Campo Synagogue of which there is documentary evidence that it was built in 1459 at the site known as the «Boneyard», at the behest of doña Elvira, the wife of the Jewish convert don Diego Arias Dávila. One of the three Jewish butcher´s of the aljama was also located here.
Segovia Jewish Quarter
The undulated shape and seven gates of the Segovian Jewish quarter set it apart from the rest of the city. Segovia’s Jewish history is what might best be termed ‘hidden’. There’s a hotel on the site of a famed converso rabbi’s house. Large arches stand, without their gates. Where there were once three synagogues, two dedicated Talmud schools, a Jewish hospital, cemetery, butcher, ovens, and baths, there are now a collection of generic buildings with some lovely scenery and views – the community was forced to liquidate their assets at the time of the expulsion. Happily, within the quarter is the Jewish Quarter Educational center, which is also the former home of an illustrious descendant of converted Jews.
San Juan de los Reyes Monastery
The monastery of San Juan de los Reyes began to be built in 1477 by order of Queen Isabel the Catholic to commemorate her victory at the battle of Toro in 1476. Its monumental presence right in the heart of the Jewish quarter as a royal symbol for the Catholic Monarchs. The Catholic Monarchs were initially the only source of refuge for the Jewish communities before the persecutions which occurred in the late 15th century, yet they were the ones who signed the Decree of expulsion of 1492, thereby putting a permanent end to a long period of cohabitation between Jews, Moslems and Christians. The convent’s austerity contrasts with the grandiosity of the church, adorned by spacious large windows, arches and Gothic pinnacles, on whose walls the chains of the Christian convicts which had hung there since 1494 when the Catholic Monarchs recovered them after the conquest of Granada. The church was built to house the dynastic pantheon of Queen Isabel the Catholic dedicated to St.John the Evangelist. Finally, the monarchs changed their mind after the conquest of Granada, and they are buried in the Royal Chapel of the cathedral of this city. The convent was practically destroyed in the war of Independence and was only partly rebuilt, with the second cloister disappearing according to historicist criteria of the 19th century, leaving no distinction between the old and the restored one, the best example of which is the gargoyles of the cloister.
Cambrón Gate
The Cambrón Gate or Bab al-Yahud (Gate of the Jews) is the main entrance and exit of the Jewish quarter and of the city via the west. It is a highly modified gate of Muslem origin and its location coincides with the south-eastern limit of the former Jewish quarter of Toledo. The current version dates from 1576 and it was structured by repeating the Bisagra structure, in square form based on a small interior courtyard surrounded by four towers covered by slate chapters. The Cambrón Gate has fragments with Roman reliefs similar to those of the Sol gate. On both sides, there are Renaissance gateways with coats-of-arms, that of the city on the exterior and that of Felipe II on the interior. Under the latter a beautiful image of St.Leocadia can be seen, the patron saint of Toledo. The gate also bears the inscription reminding that the residents of Montes de Toledo, part of the city, are except from passage rights. Its name is associated with brambles, thorny plants which are abundant in the area.
Small Arc of the Jew – Arquillo del Judío
The Arquillo del Judio (Small Arch of the Jew) is located near the confluence of Reyes Católicos and Ángel streets where the Sofer synagogue was situated. This small arch is was passage which joined the districts of Assuica and Alacava with the main Jewish quarter via the Travesía del Arquillo, which is said to have borne witness to the sale of the jewels of Queen Isabel the Catholic to finance Colombus´ American venture. The present arch is not the original one, but was reconstructed to look like the original.
Santo Tomé District
Commercial, noisy, rife with monuments and historic, but also tourist and gastronomic references, Santo Tomé street is not only the centre of the Santo Tomé district, but also one of the main thoroughfares of the Jewish quarter. The Santo Tomé district was a well-to-do Jewish area where Christians lived too. It encompassed a large part of Santo Tomé street, the current Conde square and the first part of Alamillos and San Juan de Dios streets. In documents from the 15th century the main gate of the Jewish quarter in this district is mentioned. The church of Santo Tomé where the mythical painting by El Greco El entierro del Señor de Orgaz (The burial of the Count of Orgaz) is on display or the San Antonio convent at whose reception you can buy delicious sweets, are two major references on this street into which some alleys flow like Campana or Soledad which lend us some idea of the way in which the Jewish labyrinth was organized around the main streets of madinat al-Yahud.
San Martín Bridge
The San Martín Bridge, located in the old Jewish quarter of El Degolladero, leads to the Puerta del Cambrón, an ideal place to start the journey to the Jewish quarter of Toldeo. The bridge is alongside the waters of the Tagus, with a view of the city, providing a better understanding of the complex, difficult but fascinating history of a Jewish quarter like that of Toledo. A Jewish quarter where the keys of the houses of those who had gone into exile in 1492 had become the greatest symbol of the Sephardi nostalgia. The Jewish quarter of Degolladero largely coincided with the current Reyes Católicos street and the San Martín bridge and river. It took this name because this was the site of the Jewish butcher´s, where the poultry and cattle were slaughtered. A statue of Isabel the Catholic (1451-1504), the Queen of Castile, was located at Reyes Católicos street, very near the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes. Under the edict of expulsion of 1492 the Catholic Monarchs sent between 170,000 and 180,000 Sephardis into exile.
Santa María la Blanca Synagogue
Santa María la Blanca (“Saint Mary the White,” originally known as the Ibn Shushan Synagogue, or commonly “The Congregational Synagogue of Toledo'”) is a museum and former synagogue in Toledo, Spain. Erected in 1180, it is disputably considered the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing. It is now owned and preserved by the Catholic Church. Its stylistic and cultural classification is unique as it was constructed under the Christian Kingdom of Castile by Islamic architects for Jewish use. It is considered a symbol of the cooperation that existed among the three cultures that populated the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages.
