The Valencia de Alcántara Synagogue ( es, Sinagoga de Valencia de Alcántara) is a disused

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

Valencia de Alcántara Valencia de Alcántara (Population: 6178) is a municipality located in the province of Cáceres, in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is near the Portuguese border (District of Portalegre), separated from it by the Sever. Histor ...

province of Cáceres The province of Cáceres ( ; es, provincia de Cáceres, ) is a province of western Spain, and makes up the northern half of the autonomous community of Extremadura. Its capital is the city of Cáceres. Other cities in the province include Pla ...

, Spain. While no documentary evidence attests to the building being a synagogue, it was identified as such by academics Carmen Balesteros and Jorge Oliveira. Evidence included it dating from the late 15th century when Jews settled near the Portuguese border due to increased persecution in Castile, and its architectural similarity to the

Synagogue of Tomar The Synagogue of Tomar ( pt, Sinagoga de Tomar) is a well-preserved medieval synagogue in Tomar, Portugal. Along with the Synagogue of Castelo de Vide, it is one of two existing pre-expulsion synagogues in the country. It is located at 73 Rua Dr. ...

in Portugal. After the expulsion of Jews in 1492, it was used for various purposes, mainly as a slaughterhouse for swine.

Location and design

The building is located in what was the Jewish quarter in the Middle Ages. The nineteen streets, of

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

influences, have formed a

Bien de Interés Cultural A Bien de Interés Cultural is a category of the heritage register in Spain. The term is also used in Venezuela and other Spanish-speaking countries. The term literally means a "good of cultural interest" ("goods" in the economic sense) and inclu ...

since 1997. The square-shaped structure measures around ten metres by ten metres, and is made of whitewashed plastered masonry. The roof disperses rain in four directions, forming a pyramidal structure The one entrance through the west side enters in to the main prayer room, where there are four granite columns with

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

bases and capitals. Linking the columns are four semi-circular arches, which support the beams and the roof. The design is similar to the

, a Portuguese structure of the same era. According to the historians Carmen Balesteros and Jorge Oliveira, the two doors which are no longer used due to new buildings, used to lead to a side hall and the women's prayer room. On the wall opposite the main entrance, there is a significant patch without plastering. According to the same academics, this is a tribute to the

Destruction of the Second Temple The siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Jud ...

by the Roman emperor

Titus Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September 81 AD) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death. Before becoming emperor, Titus gained renown as a mili ...

in 70 AD.

History of the structure

Evidence including metal remains and a 13th-century Portuguese coin indicate that the building was first used as a forge. Another Portuguese coin from the mid-15th century in the foundation of the columns indicates that it was around that time that the building was first used as a synagogue; the deteriorating political conditions for Jews in the

Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accessi ...

meant that a position on the border with Portugal was preferred in case of needing to flee. Its use was brief, as the

Alhambra Decree The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion; Spanish: ''Decreto de la Alhambra'', ''Edicto de Granada'') was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ( Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Arag ...

was issued in 1492, expelling all Jews from the realm. The former synagogue was deliberately burned in the 16th or 17th century. Evidence of animal bones indicates that it was then used as a slaughterhouse until the 20th century, when it was a garage, a tavern and a coal shed. Its time as a slaughterhouse would have been for the regional ham speciality,

Jamón ibérico ''Jamón ibérico'' (; pt, presunto ibérico ), "Iberian ham" is a variety of ''jamón'' or ''presunto'', a type of cured leg of pork produced in Spain and, to a lesser extent, Portugal. Description According to Spain's '' denominación d ...

. The identification of the structure as a synagogue by Balesteros and Oliveira was controversial in the field of Jewish medieval archaeology in the 1990s and early 2000s, as it was based entirely on material evidence, as no documentation attests that the building was used as such.

Bibliography

References

{{Coord, 39.4145, -7.2414, display=title Synagogues in Spain 15th-century synagogues Former synagogues Buildings and structures in the Province of Cáceres Sephardi synagogues