Jewish Monforte De Lemos

Jewish city story of Monforte de Lemos

To the North, and to a very distinct community in Galicia. The Jewish community of Monforte de Lemos were known for their silk and silverware trades. Unusually, the community here were permitted to come and go as they pleased, unlike other Jewish Calls throughout medieval Spain. Having said that, they mostly opted to live together, around streets which name some of the popular professions: Shoemaker street, Blacksmith street and Fishmonger street. Pescaderías street offers some of the best views of the city, including 700 year old walls and watchtowers. The house of the most important family, the Gaibores, still stands in the quarter, and is definitely worth a visit. Carry on walking a little further and you'll encounter the ritual baths, the site of the old synagogue and the city's old prison

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Jewish Quarter

In this city there were no exclusive Hebrew neighborhoods, but rather shared spaces with Christian families. Take a stroll through its streets and squares and look at their names to see the traces of the old trades of craftsmen and merchants. It is known that there was a synagogue and, even today, it is possible to come across stars of David carved into the stone (for example, in the Tower of Homage) or the houses of the Gaibor, the most relevant of the families of Jews and converts of Monforte. A walk through the Jewish quarter still lets you see the houses of some famous Jews, like the Gaibors. On Calle Pescaderías is another tower of the city wall. From here, there is a superb view of the city, the monastery of A Régoa and the city wall. A little further along, on the same street, is the old jail and from its second floor there is another panoramic view of the old city and, very close to this building, the Plaza de España. The old city still preserves two of the gates in the city wall, the Alcazaba Gate and the New Gate.