Portugal’s Lusa news agency reports that Portuguese researchers have discovered hundreds of secret markings that Jews left on buildings in the town of Seia, in northern Portugal, following their forced conversion to Catholicism in the 16th century.
Reporting on the story, JTA writes that the team had discovered some 500 markings including words and letters.
Alberto Martinho, Jose Levy Domingos and Luiza Metzker Lyra, the research team, said they also found distinctive indentations in stone door frames where the residents would have placed mezuzahs.
Martinho told Portugal’s Lusa news agency on Friday that the findings “elucidate the Jewish presence” in the region.
The web site Medieval Histories writes that:
The new findings correspond to the more well-known remains found in the town of Trancoso, home to the famous Casa do Gate Negro, the former Rabbi’s house. This was decorated with emblems that have been interpreted as representations of the Lion of Judah and the Gates of Jerusalem. The house itself used to belong to a wealthy member of the Jewish community, and was probably also used as a synagogue.
Martinho told Lusa [that his] hope is to “create an Eco-Museum of Jewish Heritage in Seia”. The result will be made available in the form of a gps-guide to the many markers and signs plus – hopefully – the development of a cultural route.
It also notes that:
a new Jewish cultural and religious center – the first of its kind in Portugal in more than 500 years – has opened in the city of Trancoso. This – the Isaac Cardoso Center for Jewish Interpretation will include an exhibition about the Jewish history of Portugal and the renewal of Jewish life in the region in recent years. It will also contain a new synagogue called Beit Mayim Hayim – “the House of Living Waters” plus a garden. Visitors to the Isaac Cardoso Interpretation Centre can access the archives of the 700 Jews, who were born and lived in Trancoso and who were persecuted by the Inquisition.
1 comment on “Hundreds of Jewish Markings Catalogued in Portuguese town”
Dear Jose Domingos,
I don’t know if you remember us, my wife Lee and I.
We visited with you in Guarda in 2005. With your friend, Dr Carlos, I believe, you invited us
to a Friday night dinner, where you said the kiddush. Later you invited us to your home where
we met your family. You gave us a book about the Jewish community as a present. We also attended the inauguration of the Jewish museum in Belmonte, where you were present, as well as Rabbi Salas and Prof. Elvira Mea, who was our guide in Porto, where we visited the synagogue that Captain de Barros Basto built, with the help of my late father, Mordechai van Son (Holland).
I am writing to you because the past two weeks I have seen you in our local weekly in Zichron Ya’akov, Israel, together with Rabbi Rafael Weinberg, who I know very well. Congratulations on the inauguration of the synagogue in Trancoso (we were there in 2005, and I remember the Rua Cardozo).
Best regards,