The presence of the Jews
The Jewish presence in the city is documented since 1124 until 1492, when
the Spanish Jews or sephardim were forced to choose between conversion
to Catholicism or expulsion of the country. During that lapse of time they
became a prosperous community that considered themselves very fortunate
to live in what is nowdays the province of Guadalajara. There they enjoyed
a degree of freedom that had long vanished from the rest of Spain, under
the protection of the City's Lord, which was its Bishop. In the city's
plan it can be observed that Sigüenza the city developed between two
poles isolated in principle; the castle, on the top of the hill upon which
the city was founded, residence of the Bishop, and the Cathedral in a lower
and less strong situation. The arrows mark the known entrances through
the exterior of the walls and the different colors the succesive enlargements
of the defensive walls.
The former synagogue
After the Christian conquest of the city from the Muslims, the Jews lived
in their own quarter, although without a strict separation from Christians
and Muslims, the two other major religious groups of the city, being important
enough to have the cathegory of aljama. The Jewish Quarter, known
as 'Juderia' had a synagogue built in its center (it would be included
in the figure inside the area marked as 1). In 1412, after a series of
antisemitic disorders that spreaded all over the former kingdoms in which
the Iberian Penninsula was divided, Juan II, King of Castile, ordered the
reclusion of the Jews in quarters completely surrounded by walls and with
only one gate 'for their protection'. The jewish population moved promptly
to the assigned space, which was considered to be more suitable for commerce
than the previous one, too narrow and separated from the main entrances
to the city. In the process, they had to trade off their old temple for
a new one, because legislation passed in 1415 limited to one the number
of temples the Jews could possess in a city. No record has survived of
the transaction, but strong evidence suggests it was sold to the Confraternity
of Saint John the Baptist.
The Confraternity of Saint John the Baptist
This Confraternity was established in the early XIV century, as the cult
of Saint John spread all over Europe. Its members stem from Sigüenza's
middle class workers and civil servants, but with a clear predominace of
small business owners and artisans and a small but very significant representation
of the powerful city's clergy. The purpose of the foundation was -at least
in its origin- one of charity, having to maintain a hospital, which were
forced to abandon later on due to lack of funds. Afterwards, the focus
shifted to religious devotions and limited social asssistance to its members.
A hypothetical computer reconstruction of the 'synagogue between
the chapel' of Saint John the Baptist
The temple, then converted into a catholic chapel, had an odd distribution,
as can be seen in the above computer reconstruction, which provides a view
of the interior pointing to the east. Some refurbishing of the old synagogue
had been made, adapting the entrance for catholic cult -not without difficulties-
and reserving the rest as a convention hall. The confraternity obtained
an steady source of income from the rental of such a spacious room, known
as the 'Palace of Lord Saint John' even as late as 1698. By that year,
an apparent scandal broke out when a fugitive tried to obtain religious
inmunity in the building and it was recognized by the religious authorities
what everybody in the old jewish quarter knew ; that the building was mostly
a profane space, which was rented freely to those who wanted to enjoy privacy
in their meetings, where comedies were rehearsed before their exhibition
in the citys theatre, and even dances took place. Soon after, the building
was reformed to such an extent that it became unrecognizable, becoming
a typical XVIII century chapel and all the previous social activity ceased.
The incomes obtained from its rental ceased accordingly and the confraternity
slowly declined.
The 'secret jews' and the Confraternity
It didn't turn out to be surprising to find that some of the brothers of
the Confraternity had problems with the Inquisition, which by the time
was obsessed with the persecution of secret jews, that is to say of those
ones who had evaded the expulsion of 1492 by conversion to Christianism
and meanwhile continued practicing their religion in secret. Some of these
Jews tried to restore the officially banned religion as an underground
cult but they failed. It came as a relative surprise to find that the most
prominent of these 'conspirators' happened to be the head of the Confraternity
having close family ties whith several of its members. Even though such
findings may be simply casual and might reflect the fact that religious
thought followed family and proffessional patters in the city ; taylors
and shoemakers as the groups more prone to Judaism, and remained traditionally
linked to the Confraternity. Jewish practices where held in private houses,
but it remains an interesting question if the greatly untouched portion
of the old synagogue could have provided a place of worship for this group.
Testimony against Hernando de Soria (Diocesan Archive of Cuenca)
(partial transcription)
[Hernando of Soria] shop keeper, resident of Sigüenza,
majordomo of the confraternity of the Lord St John in the Chapter of Sigüenza,
having gone one day this witness to settle up accounts to the house of
the abovesaid Hernando of Soria ...
As it is often said 'no one knows you better than your enemy' and that
is specially true for the Inquisitorial documents, our best possible recording
of those -otherwise anonymous- lifes, often heroic.
The later synagogue
Let us focus our attention now on the 'new' synagogue (remember we are
talking about a temple built around 1412 and forcibly abandoned in 1492).
The new quarter
"El Portal Mayor", The Main Gateway to the Jewish quarter. An
image of the Virgin Mary peacefully presides over passers by
As we have already said, in 1412 the Jews had changed their residence
to a new quarter, surrounded by the city walls but with four entrances
instead of the one demanded by the legislation (labelled as 2ª in
the map), namely the archs of 'Portal Mayor', 'Herreros', 'of Medina' (burned
in the XVI century) and 'Arquillo'. Also, the place was much more favorable
for commerce, so that the community grew prosperous. They also shared the
quarter with the Moors, whose population had decreased so dramatically
that could not have a quarter for themselves, being confined to one sole
street. Their intellectual prestige was such that the main responsible
of the definitive triumph of the Reinassance in Spain, the Cardinal Jiménez
de Cisneros (1436-1517) was credited with having learned Hebrew in Sigüenza
during his stay there.
"The same fondness he had for this he also showed for literature
and making foundations, although the holy Scriptures were all his span,
as other Jerome, he started to learn the Hebrew and Caldean Language from
a Jew of this city [of Sigüenza] so to understand it perfectly, and
so good this startings were that he made a lot from them when working in
the Complutense Bible" Jiménez de Cisneros, as described by
Pedro Quintanilla (1653)
Fragment of the book of Joshua from a manuscript from Sigüenza
(detail)
The expulsion
The bishop of Sigüenza at the time of the expulsion, Pedro
González de Mendoza
In the year 1492 the Jews were forced to leave the city. The temple was
ultimately bought by the Chapter of the Cathedral, which decided to turn
the builing into a private house and rent it. Shortly afterwards they decided
to sell the property with a perpetual payment imposed on it. Time went
by, and the original house was divided into three. As late as 1703 the
Chapter of the Cathedral realized they had lost control of the situation
and litigated with the actual owners of one of the houses to reclaim their
overdue payments, arguing that the house was part of the synagogue. An
agreement was reached at last, accepting the owner the requested quantities
and obligations. Through the texts, we have some hints about the aspect
of the old synagogue.
An hypothetical reconstruction of the exterior of the 'later synagogue'
The two temples today
As time passed on, the two buildings experienced a somewhat similar fate.
In the case of the temple which had been converted into houses, these ones
experienced progressive degradation, which peaked in the XIX century, when
the texts inform us that all that remained where ruins. The damage inflicted
to the city during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and the construction
of new buildings in the lower part of the city contributed decisevely to
the abandon of the old quarters and the degradation of much of its buildings.
In the case of the Chapel of Saint John the Baptist, the progressive secularization
of today's society resulted in the cesation of cult in the chapels and
their consequent ruin. Today, only the walls remain, deprived from all
ornamentation.
Based on the book of Marcos Nieto "Las sinagogas de Sigüenza",
Madrid 1998
Other useful references :
-
Francisco Cantera "Sinagogas españolas", Madrid 1955
- Francisco Yela Utrilla "Civilización española", Ministerio de Educación
Pública y Bellas Artes, 1928
-
Francisco Cantera and Carlos Carrete "Las juderías medievales
en la provincia de Guadalajara", Madrid 1975
-
Francisco Javier Dávara Rodríguez "La judería medieval
seguntina", Anales Seguntinos, Vol. I, n. 2, Sigüenza 1985
-
José Antonio Gómez Gordo "Sigüenza. Historia. Arte. Folkore",
Sigüenza 1978
-
José Luis Lacave "Juderías y sinagogas españolas",
Madrid 1992
Last updated: September 14, 1998
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