Archaeologists say they have confirmed the discovery of a medieval synagogue in the Old Town of Belchite, in northern Spain.
Students taking part in an international archaeological field school this summer revealed the bimah of the synagogue, a report on the city’s web site said.
The find, it said, confirmed suspicions that had emerged during the field school session in 2024.
The results were presented Thursday, with a visit to the site by the field session director archaeologist Alfonso Fanjul, accompanied by Aragon’s counselor of Education, Culture and Sport; the executive director of the Red Juderías Network of Spain; and the mayor of Belchite.
In addition to the bimah, which had a metal structure, extensive plasterwork and the remains of a mural bearing the representation of a menorah identical in style to that found in the medieval synagogue in Hijar also were found, archaeologists said.
“The site was determined to be a synagogue based on several different factors including, orientation, oral history, and most importantly based on frescos plaster found that match identical imagery of a Menorah from a synagogue in the Hijar region,” Adina Gerwin, a Jewish Studies student from Dartmouth College who took part in the field session, wrote on the Dartmouth web site. “I helped provide additional details about the layout of the inside (bimah, water basin, mikvah, etc).”
The city web site added: “thousands of remains of charred barley grains that were found fit the only existing documentary reference of the Belchite synagogue, which is known to have been converted into a barn. The fire that destroyed the building in modern times has allowed preservation of much of the remains of grain stored inside for several centuries.”
The field session was the fourth international archaeological campus promoted by the Belchite City Council through the Pueblo Viejo Foundation and the Spanish Association of Military Archaeology, This year it included 10 students from the United States, Canada, England, and the Netherlands.
Click here to see a photo gallery on the Belchite government Facebook page