Background of the Synagogue
In 1987, medievalist Jaume Riera i Sans took the initial steps that made it possible to determine the exact location of what was the Synagogue of Barcelona until 1391, in what is known today as the Barcelona Jewish Quarter.
He then published a work titled “Catalonia and the Jews,” in which, based on the reconstruction of the route that a tax collector followed in the year 1400 through the old Jewish Quarter, ending in front of the former synagogue, he confirmed his initial suspicions about its location within the network of medieval Jewish quarters.
This study led Mr. Miguel Iaffa to investigate the visible exterior of the current building’s location, and he verified that it still complied with the requirement of the “Tosefta” that one of its facades be oriented toward Jerusalem, with two windows allowing light from the Holy City.
These highly relevant indicators went unnoticed and did not generate the level of interest that might have been expected from the respected historian’s work. At the end of 1995, the former owner put the property up for sale, which was initially intended to become a bar. Faced with this unfortunate situation, Mr. Miguel Iaffa decided to acquire it in order to uncover its historical past and prevent an unworthy use of its long history, with the aim of preserving the Jewish history in Barcelona and the legacy of the Jewish community.
Thus began a collaboration between the two previously mentioned individuals, Riera and Iaffa, to achieve a common goal: to rescue from oblivion a long period of history of Catalonia through the rehabilitation of the former synagogue space.
The poor state of conservation and the concealment of the stones by thick layers of plaster produced widespread skepticism that we were indeed in the expected location. In 1997, Mr. Jaume Riera i Sans published a key work for the study of the Jewish community of Catalonia focusing on Catalan Judaism and medieval heritage. This research was published in the bulletin of the Col·legi Oficial de Doctors i Llicenciats en Filosofia i Lletres i en Ciències de Catalunya.
Medieval Jewish Quarter (Call)
The oldest enclosure of the Call -the Call Major- was located between the streets of l’Arc de Sant Ramon, Call, Bisbe and Sant Sever. This historic area is part of what is today the Gothic Quarter and a key stop in many walking tours in Barcelona.
By the mid-13th century, the geographical space destined for the Jewish community expanded, and it prospered in the surroundings of what is today Sant Jaume Church -the Call Minor- forming part of the broader Jewish district of Barcelona.
Outside the city, on the slopes of Montjuïc, there was the cemetery, and we know the names of some Jewish owners of vineyards, which they used to produce kosher wine. Thanks to more recent studies based on notarial documents, we know that in the second half of the 14th century, one of the gates of the Call Major was located at the beginning of today’s Sant Domènec street, which at that time was the main artery, at the corner with Call street.
In front of the gate, outside the Jewish quarter, there was the bakery. Inside the neighborhood, we can locate several essential elements of community life: the butcher shop was next to the entrance gate, on Sant Domènec street (then called Carnisseria); the fish market was in what is now Fruita street; the fountain that supplied the Call was located on Sant Honorat street (then called Font); and in today’s l’Arc de Sant Ramon street (then Escola dels Francesos or dels Banys Freds).
We also know where some relevant figures of the Jewish community lived: the doctors resided in the location that today corresponds to the Palau de la Generalitat at the junction with Plaça Sant Jaume; David de Bellcaire owned a series of premises next to the gate, including the porter’s house and the butcher’s shop.
The Castell Nou, where the Jewish residents of the Call took refuge after the assault of 5 August 1391, was located in today’s Banys Nous street, at the corner of Call street. Finally, the Synagogue of Barcelona was located in the extension of what was known as Carnisseria street, also called Escola Major.
Exterior of the Building of the Barcelona Synagogue
The original building was free-standing, meaning it had no adjoining structures. It bordered to the north with what was known as Escola Major street, to the east with Marlet street, to the south with Carrer de les Dones, where a narrow building was constructed in the 19th century. And to the west it had an atrium, today occupied by a small commercial premises.
On the exterior northern wall there is the effigy of Saint Dominic, placed there when the street name was changed. Buildings of importance in the Jewish Quarter were often “Christianized” with the image of a saint after historical transformations in the area. The bloodiest day in the history of the community, the assault on the Call, took place on 5 August 1391, the feast day of Saint Dominic.
From that moment on, the street changed its name to Sant Domènec, and the building, along with all the assets of the Jewish community, passed into royal ownership. We are therefore dealing with a structure whose foundations date back to the Roman period, with some areas showing early medieval superimposed constructions, a central structure from the 13th century, and later modifications carried out in the 17th century, when the upper floors were built.
We will enter from Marlet Street through a very small doorway. We will need to bend down. In doing so, we honour the memory of that devastated community of the Jewish community of Barcelona.
First Room of the Synagogue
We are in the vestibule of the synagogue. We have passed through the doorway and descended a few steps, as the Roman floor lies almost two meters below the current street level, yet we are still outside the Synagogue of Barcelona.
If we look back, just beneath the staircase we can observe an opus africanus, a type of construction used in public utility buildings in the early centuries of the city’s foundation. On top of this ancient structure, the medieval walls of the 13th century were built.
Beneath the glass structure, another wall from the same period as the opus africanus can also be seen, forming a corner with it and likely defining the perimeter of the original building of the ancient Synagogue of Barcelona. Further on, a Late Roman construction is preserved, where the dyers’ vats were installed, used by the d’Arguens family from 1477 onwards.
When their condition as crypto-Jews was discovered, they were forced to flee to France, and were later burned in effigy by the Inquisition.
We pass through an opening in the wall, step down a single step, and enter the Second Room of this historic synagogue.
Second Room of the Synagogue
We are in the heart of the medieval synagogue. From a modern perspective, it may seem like a very small space, although its dimensions (12 x 7) were those permitted at the time.
This was the only synagogue that allowed the ownership of seats, which, as numerous documents confirm, were considered a valuable asset and were subject to all kinds of transactions: transfers, donations, inheritances, and more, reflecting the social and economic structure of the Jewish population in Barcelona during the medieval period.
The preferred seating positions were determined by the social status of the owner. The notables of the community occupied better seats than those less fortunate.
The original entrance, now lost, was located to the northwest. Upon entering the enclosure, visitors would face two large windows opened in the southeast wall, which invite, and still invite today, us to turn our gaze toward eternal Jerusalem. Between them, the Ark or Aron Hakodesh is placed, where the handwritten scrolls of the Torah (Pentateuch) are kept, as this would also have been the original location.
At the back of the room, the Menorah has been installed, a wrought-iron piece by the Mallorcan artist Ferran Aguiló (1957), donated by him in memory of his ancestors. The surrounding walls of the room date from the 13th and 17th centuries, as does the vault, which is dated to the 17th century. Beneath a window that once opened onto the former Carrer de les Dones, the existence of Late Roman walls has been identified, which, due to their orientation toward Jerusalem, allow for the hypothesis that they may already have belonged to a synagogal space at that time.
This ancient synagogue has now been reborn and stands as one of the most important testimonies to the Jewish history in Barcelona. Although some details are still missing, what matters most is your presence here, helping to perpetuate the tradition of the Jewish community and its living memory.