Published: 10 February 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
The building has been everything from a hospital to a disco-pub but historians have proven it is part of the legacy of Spanish Jews.
Archaeologists in the Andalucian city of Utrera have rediscovered a staggeringly rare Spanish medieval synagogue, which was later used over the course of seven centuries as everything from a hospital and a home for abandoned children to a restaurant and disco-pub.
The find, announced on Tuesday, makes the 14th-century building one of a precious handful of medieval synagogues to have survived the aftermath of the expulsion of Spain’s Jews in 1492.
References to the lost temple go back more than 400 years. In his 1604 history of Utrera, Rodrigo Caro, a local priest, historian and poet, described an area of the city centre as it had been in earlier centuries, writing: “In that place, there were only foreign and Jewish people … who had their synagogue where the Hospital de la Misericordia now stands.”
Caro’s assertion was verified at the end of last year when a team led by the archaeologist Miguel Ángel de Dios discovered the Torah ark area and the prayer hall.
“It was like cracking hieroglyphics. Once we had that key, it all came together,” he said.
Speaking at a press conference at the site on Tuesday morning, Utrera’s mayor, José María Villalobos, said the two-year search had meant “we can now be scientifically certain that we’re standing in a medieval synagogue right now”.
He said the importance of the “extraordinary” find was difficult to overstate.
“Until now, there were only four such buildings in all of Spain – two in Toledo, one in Segovia and one in Córdoba,” he said. “This is an exceptional building that’s been part of Utrera and part of its inhabitants’ lives for 700 years. This building was born in the 1300s and has made it all the way to the 21st century.”
Former Andalucian bar confirmed as lost medieval synagogue (Guardian)
Photo: The former synagogue (Utrera City Hall)
