Rua da Judiaria

On this very ground once stood the beating heart of a thriving Jewish community, where families gathered in their synagogue, children studied Torah in Jewish schools, and merchants filled the air with Hebrew prayers and Ladino songs. Rua da Judiaria, built around 1373, was the last Jewish quarter established in Alfama. For over a century, this street housed hundreds of Jewish families who lived, worked, and worshipped freely.

The quarter had its own synagogue, ritual baths called mikvehs, and schools where generations preserved their ancient traditions. Everything changed in December 1496 when King Manuel I, pressured by Spain's Catholic monarchs, issued an expulsion decree. All Jews had to convert to Christianity or leave Portugal by October 1497. When 20,000 Jews gathered at the port expecting ships, the king betrayed them.

He herded them into Rossio Square, seized their children for forced baptisms, and left parents without food or water for three days until they submitted to conversion. The synagogue was destroyed. Homes were confiscated and given to the Church and nobles. In April 1506, a massacre erupted at the nearby São Domingos church, killing between 500 and 4,000 of these forcibly converted Jews in three horrific days. The street you walk on is all that physically remains of this medieval Jewish world.