Sinagoga Major de Barcelona

The Sinagoga Major on Carrer de Marlet in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter is one of Europe's oldest synagogues, dating back to a Roman structure built in the third or fourth century. Hidden for over 600 years after a 1391 massacre, the 60-square-meter space was rediscovered in 1987 by historian Jaume Riera i Sans using 13th-century tax records. In 1995, Miguel Iaffa purchased the building, preserving a site visited by King James I in 1263.

Barcelona · from the walk “Stones & Secrets: Hidden Courtyards of the Barri Gòtic” · audio ~3 min · Generated

Carrer de Marlet 5, Barcelona

How was the ancient Sinagoga Major in Barcelona rediscovered in the late 20th century?

You're standing on Carrer de Marlet, one of the narrowest lanes in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter. And just behind this unassuming doorway lies what is believed to be one of the Oldest synagogues in all of Europe... hidden for over six hundred years.......... Archaeological investigations show that the original structure of this building dates to the third or fourth century... back when Barcelona was still a Roman colony called Barcino. The street level in Roman times was about six feet lower than it is today, so when you step inside, you literally descend into the past.......... But how was something this ancient lost for so long? The bloodiest day in the history of Barcelona's Jewish community was August fifth, thirteen ninety one. On that day, the day of Santo Domingo, the Call was attacked. Over three hundred members of the Jewish community were killed during the massacre, leaving survivors the choice of fleeing or converting to Christianity. The building, along with all the community's belongings, passed into the hands of the king.......... And then... the synagogue simply vanished from memory. During the centuries that followed, the space was converted again and again... a laundry, a storage room for electrical materials. Archaeologists even found dying vats from fourteen seventy seven, once used by a family called the d'Arguens. When the family's identity as Crypto-Jews was discovered, the d'Arguens fled to France.......... Now here's the remarkable twist. In nineteen eighty seven, a historian named Jaume riEra y Sans began researching the synagogue's location, based on the reconstruction of a route followed by a thirteenth century tax collector. His work led a man named Migel Iaffa to examine the building's exterior, and Iaffa noticed it still complied with Jewish law... the structure faced Jerusalem, with two windows allowing light from the Holy City, breaking with the alignment of every other street in the neighborhood.......... In nineteen ninety five, when the owner put the property up for sale... to become a Bar, of all things... Migel Iaffa, a Catalan-Argentinian Jew born in a small village called Marça during the Spanish Civil War, purchased it and saved it from oblivion.......... But there's an even deeper story in these walls. On the Shabbat after the famous Disputation of Barcelona in twelve sixty three, King James the First himself entered this very synagogue and addressed the Jewish congregation... a thing unheard of during the Middle Ages. At the end of that disputation, the king awarded the rabbi Nachmanides a prize of three hundred gold coins. Yet under pressure from the Dominicans, Nachmanides was forced to leave Aragon forever. In twelve sixty seven, he settled in the Land of Israel.......... Sixty square meters. That's all that remains. The synagogue was never allowed to be taller than the lowest church in the city. Yet this tiny space held the heartbeat of a community that shaped Barcelona for over a thousand years.

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