Palma

Palacio de la Almudaina (Citadel Palace)

In the space delimiting the steps of Costa de la Seu and Conquistador, Victoria and Palau Reial streets there stands the Almudaina or former Moslem citadel where the first Majorcan Jewish quarter mallorquina undoubtedly stood at the time of the Moslems, protected inside the fortified citadel. The original Jewish quarter would be located around where today the palace and March library would be in Cuesta de n´Adarró, partly adjoining the plot that was granted to the Dominicans in 1231 to build their convent where the Balearic Islands´ Parliament is located today.

According to Liber Maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum Illustribus, a chronicle of the expedition to Majorca in 1114 by Ramon Berenguer III, on this date all the Jews surrendered, giving us an idea of how important this group was at that time.

In 1230 Jaime I the Conqueror finished the conquest of Majorca and started to reorganise the city under the new Christian structure. The Llibre del Repartiment (Book of Division), a piece of great documental value, recounts the distribution of different assets to judeorum de la Almudaina as a reward for their support during the conquest and this has been partly recorded in Hebrew by the Jewish Solomon, the alfaqui of the monarch.

Of Roman origin, the Palau de lʼAlmudaina (Royal Palace of Almudaina) was the residence of the Moslem governors and after the Christian conquest it was restored and extended by Jaime II who had the Angel tower built, dominated by the figure of the Archangel Gabriel.

According to Liber Maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum Illustribus, a chronicle of the expedition to Majorca in 1114 by Ramon Berenguer III, on this date all the Jews surrendered, giving us an idea of how important this group was at that time.

Palau Reial street where Puerta de los Judíos was located alongside Victoria street

Situated alongside Polls street, now Victoria street, the Puerta de Judíos de Mallorca (Jews´ gate) from the 13th century and now disappeared was the gate which provided access to the Jewish quarter of the citadel in the Middle Ages.

Mills in the district of Es Jornet where the Jewish cemetery was located

One of the first references to a Jewish cemetery in Palma de Mallorca was made two years after the island was conquered. On July 1st 1231 a corn exchange was donated used by the Christians in Moslem times to be transformed into a Jewish cemetery. This donation was to be inserted in the block of concessions made by Jaime I to the Jews inhabiting Madina Mayurqa to thank them for their support. In any case, it seems that it was not put down in writing until sometime – around ten years - later. An order by the King dated May 8th 1252, ordered stone and land not to be taken from the Jewish cemetery at Porto Pí Gate.

By dint of the confiscation of 1314 and 1315 of all the assets of the Jews of Palma de Majorca the cemetery fell under royal ownership. This made it possible for King Sancho from Perpiñán on November 6th 1319 to donate the land sot the jurors of the University and Kingdom of Majorca.

Once the cemetery had disappeared, the name Fossar dels jueus remained in the public consciousness for some time afterwards and it was used as a landmark which could not be confused. The former Jewish cemetery was a certain distance away from the wall, alongside the Porto Pí Gate, before which were the church and hospital of Santa Catalina de los Pobres, founded in 1324 by the merchant Ramón de Salelles and which ended up becoming a square. On this basis, constructing mills at the start and then later adding houses, the still existing district of Es Jonquet was born at this site which conserves part of the mills known as Molinar de Ponent.

Detail of Tagamanent square in the Minor Call

In 1233 the advisors of Ramón de Font fray Agén and Astruc the Jew started formalising Jewish establishments in the environment of the minor Call in documents which already mentioned the Jewish street and call which started at the confluence of Sant Bartomeu and Jaime II streets alongside Cort square.

On Sant Bartomeu street the steps of Costa de Can Berga lend an atmosphere of times of yore to an environment where the house of the major converted families as from the 15th century have been located, those known as «chuetas de oreja alta». On Les Monges street there is a house with an amazing Gothic courtyard inhabited until the 20th century by one of these great families who were the descendants of Jews.

No monument has remained in the minor Call nor any exact description. The walls enclosing the call, the gates which protected it, the synagogue, including the Christian church of Sant Bartomeu which cohabited with it or which replaced it, have not left any memory other than their name and a few mentions in documents. We are unaware of the limits and extension of this Jewish district. Its main arteries would seem to be Sant Bartomeu street and Jaime II street, parallel to it, between which the synagogue plot may have been located at a site outside the Moslem walls and under the protection of Count Nuño. It is possible that it had extended as far as the wall at Victoria square and that it had come down on the other side as far as the vicinity of the stream which as diverted in the 17th century to form what today are the Rambla and Borne avenues.

The Bank of Spain building on Sant Bartomeu street where the Minor Call synagogue was situated

In the final stretch of Sant Bartomeu street there was traditionally a synagogue, part of which some academics have identified with the foundations of the former Misericordia convent built on the call and on which the current Bank of Spain building stands.

The call had its own place of worship as can be gleaned from a document dated March 21st 1234 in which the procurator Ferrer granted ownership of some houses at the end of calle de los judíos (Jews´ street), to turn them into an oratory and synagogue where they could come to pray (oratorium et sinagogam ad opus iudeorum, que ibi uoluerunt orare). On two sides these houses faced those of Bernardo de Pabía and Mosén Francisco.

The synagogue was actually established because with the death of Bernardo de Pabía in 1239, the heir Nuño Sans transferred the properties of these brothers, who lived in callo nostro iudaico, to his own son Pedro. The houses were in the neighbourhood of said call with Sant Bartomeu street, the hostels of the Jew Bonet and the synagogue of the Jews: in sinagoga iudeorum nostrorum.

The current Balearic Islands´ Parliament takes up most to what used to be the old St. Dominic´s Convent, settled, in turn, on the set of Jewish houses of Almudaina dels Jueus which the order obtained in 1236 from the hands of Prince Pedro de Portugal, though the first stone would not be laid until sixty years later.

Palma Cathedral

Palma cathedral is a spectacular Gothic building located in the interior of the old Roman, Moslem and Christian city at the limit with the space known as the Almudaina (citadel) where the Jewish district was set up at the time of Arab domination.

Alongside its Gothic and Baroque retables, the canopy and presbytery of Gaudí or the capilla del Santísimo (Chapel of the Most Holy), a contemporary work by Miquel Barceló, what stands out at the Majorcan catedral is the wealth of its cathedralic treasure with an excellent collection of goldsmithery including the famous Rimonim of the Torah which were brought from Sicily in the 15th century and which constituted a brilliant testimony of the Jewish presence in the city.

After visiting the cathedral, whose interior contains the remains of the former cardus, you come out into Sant Roc street which coincides with that thoroughfare of the Roman city. Where Sant crosses with Estudi General street, corresponding to decumanus, the old Roman forum is situated of which there are also some remains in the subsoil of the Estudio General Luliano. The curved layout of this street which leads to the area around the citadel allows us to appreciate the adaptation of the Moslem layout to the contour line of the mound on which the old Palma is situated.

Balearic Islands´ Parliament where the former St. Dominic´s Convent was located, built on the first Jewish quarter in Palma

The current Balearic Islands´ Parliament takes up most to what used to be the old St. Dominic´s Convent, settled, in turn, on the set of Jewish houses of Almudaina dels Jueus which the order obtained in 1236 from the hands of Prince Pedro de Portugal, though the first stone would not be laid until sixty years later.

The Dominican convent where the sanbenitos of the converts sentenced by the Inquisition were placed, served this purpose for five centuries until this was ended by the Disentailment, going into the hands of the Círculo Mallorquín after a few years.

During the almost forty years it took to build the convent, the Jews who lived at the Citadel site, around it and at other places in the city, as stated in an order by Jaime II (qui consueuerit morari et suas domos et habitaciones habere intus Almudaynam et in altris locis ciuitatis Maioricarum) during the course of their various activities must have settled and spread around various sites in the new Christian city, sometimes leaving and sometimes being turfed out of their stronghold at the Citadel.

Main Call

From Santa Eulàlia square, Call square constituted the point of access to Call Mayor whose entry gate was situated at the angle formed by Sol and Montesión streets. Call Mayor or Call Nuevo de Palma emerged around 1299. Although it did not initially accommodate all the Jews in the city, from 1303 onwards residence on the Main Call would be compulsory for all Jews even if they had permission to run their business outside the district. A list from 1339 recounts that there were 259 heads of household sentenced to a tax fine to the King which would suggest that the Jewish quarter at that time could have comprised over one thousand people, five percent of the population, though some scholars mention a figure five times higher.

Camp Square, where the Jewish cemetery was located

As use of the Porto Pí Gate cemetery was los as from 1319 and as it was impossible to recover it, it must be supposed that the aljama sought, requested and obtained another burial space. This site was near Porta del Camp (Camp Gate). It seems that this cemetery cohabited with that of Porto Pí Gate for around two decades, starting its activity in around 1300. Various references tell us that this cemetery was still working in 1410 without the partial conversion of the Jewish community having held it back.

The new cemetery met the new requirements arising from the creation of the main Call and its settlement. With the new location of the Call, the Porto Pí gate cemetery was too far away and meant crossing virtually the whole breadth of the urban centre and going round by the maritime façade was not feasible. With the new cemetery initially passing by a church could be excused. It didn´t last for long que as in 1324 the Holy Faith Chapel was put up in the so-called Huerto d´en Cassà right on the way to the Jewish cemetery.

By dint of the confiscation of 1314 and 1315 of all the assets of the Jews of Palma de Majorca the cemetery fell under royal ownership. This made it possible for King Sancho from Perpiñán on November 6th 1319 to donate the land sot the jurors of the University and Kingdom of Majorca.

The Seminari Vell which backed onto the new synagogue

In 1331, once sixteen years had gone by without any public synagogue, the Jews started building a new temple, but son ran up against opposition in the form of officers of the bishop who appealed to Pope Gregory IX´s decree that forbade the erection of any new synagogues. King Jaime III was inclined to agree with the Jews but by replacing the term new erection with repair or reconstruction of the old one and changing the word synagogue to school or house of prayer.

The new synagogue was located behind the current Conciliary Seminar and was closed after the attack of 1391, experiencing a second spell of activity between 1419 and 1435 with the final conversion of the Majorcan Jews. After the attack of 1391, all the common assets of the aljama (synagogue, cemetery, butcher´s, baths, hospital etc.) were subject to the royal treasury. A commissioner was sent specifically to Majorca to take possession of everything and thanks to the notarial act drawn up at the time a description of the synagogue´s situation has been preserved:

Two years later, after the seizure of the synagogue, the premises of said new synagogue were bought from the royal treasury by the notary Joan Martí the right to use water from the royal stream which ran through the interior of its site.

In 1348 King Pedro IV the Ceremonious granted the building or part of it to Bernat de Vallflor and gave him permission to build a baker´s, though the property would later go back into Jewish hands.

Jafudà Cresques (Palma, 1350?-Barcelona?, 1410 or 1427), also known as Judá Cresques and Jaume Ribes, was a Jewish cartographer of Majorcan origin and probably the man who coordinated the maritime discoveries of the Portuguese naval school of Sagres in the early 15th century.

He was the son of another notable cartographer, Cresques Abraham, born in Majorca. Jafudà frequented the court of the monarchs Pedro III, Juan I and Martín I, where he carried out several cartographic works: along with his father, he was probably the author of the famous Catalan Atlas of 1375, a masterpiece of European medieval cartography. He also drew up a mapa mundi for the Tuscan commercial firm Datini and received distinctions and the protection of the Catalan monarchs.

Born in a Jewish family, he converted to Christianity by dint of the sacking of the call of Palma in 1391 and he then adopted the name Jaume Ribes (Jacobus Ribus, in Latin). As such, it seems that he could have been appointed the Portuguese coordinator of cartography, with Master Jacome de Mallorca assuming the post. Many scholars believe that it was the same person, but it a moot point.

Joan March avenue where the Santa Margalida Gate was found

The Jewish cemetery of Santa Margalida Gate, in view of the very scant information we have discovered, has frequently been said not to have existed. The sole written reference dates from 1361 and briefly refers to a donation made by Bishop Antonio de Colell of a vegetable garden alongside the drinking trough of the portal invasatoris and which was located opposite a Fossar dels jueus (Jewish cemetery).

In the area Joaquim Ma. Bover found in 1861 a tomb headstone near the aqueduct which, passing via the Santa Margalida gate, allowed the entry of the water from the Town Fountain. Fidel Fita, who had the chance to see the inscription, dated the headstone from its calligraphy in the 14th century. It was a one and a half metre wide limestone piece fragmented into two segments and in truncated pyramid shape according to a model which was very common throughout the 14th century. The inscription, severely deteriorated, was made with characters of around 9 or 10 cm and the following can be read:

In the opinion of Josep Maria Quadrado, this may refer to Moses Faquí, the husband of Floreta, who appears as the owner of a house adjoining that of Maymó Mahabub. This notarial annotation allows us to assume he was alive in 1391 as Floreta is not said to be a widow.

The piece was collected by the Monuments´ Commission and formed part of the Archaeological Museum of the province which existed at that time. When the Museum disappeared the headstone was stored at Lonja and it was kept there during the 1940´s and went missing at an indefinite time.

Plaque at Torre del Amor stre

Torre del Amor street brings to the present the dispute between two prominent Jews who resorted to the King´s arbitration.

According to a document in the chancellery of Pedro the Ceremonious from 1379, this tower was built in 1365 by Moses Faquim owing to his love of another rich Jew who was his rival, Magaluf Natjar. He ostentatiously christened it the Love tower.

And he boasted of it to the extent that he would even invite prominent Christians to go up the tower to spy on the house of his rival and the woman who was the object of his passion. Annoyed and humiliated the husband, Magaluf Natjar, lodged a complaint with the monarch.

Pedro IV ordered the lowering by twelve palms of the pompous tower built by his rival Moses Faquim to spy at ease on the wife of the former who he was in love with.

Forn dʼen Miquel where the third synagogue was located

Jaume Riera and Gabriel Llompart have put forward the existence of a third synagogue in the main Call. According to their theory, at the time of its destruction in 1391 the aljama of Mallorca had two synagogues: the main one, which they identify with the one constructed with the permission of Jaime III in 1331 and the minor one (also called the new synagogue) of which we have a location and description carried out after the attack of 1391 when it also fell into the hands of the royal treasury:

Its duration was relatively very short as it derived from a bequest by Aron Mahaní who must have died in around 1373. The existence of two synagogues in the city of Palma from 1373 to 1391, so say Riera and Llompart, is borne out by other documents. Their location was at the current Pelleteria street in the vicinity of Forn dʼen Miquel.

Pedro IV ordered the lowering by twelve palms of the pompous tower built by his rival Moses Faquim to spy at ease on the wife of the former who he was in love with.

The masterpiece by Cresques was the famous Atlas Catalán, a mapa mundi which Prince Juan gave as a gift to Charles V of France in 1381 and which today is on display at the Paris National Library.

In this year the attacks caused a proclamation to be made public in Palma on July 12th, threatening the death penalty for anyone scandalmongering and the tearing out of the tongue of anyone proffering insults against the Jews.

On August 2nd several thousand peasants from the district were congregated the city gates and the urban artisans, led by the batlle of the city, Lluís de Bellviure, seized the moment to start the attack on the call which resulted in the death of between 180 and 300 Jews.

after the seizure of the synagogue, the premises of said new synagogue were bought from the royal treasury by the notary Joan Martí the right to use water from the royal stream which ran through the interior of its site.

The Main Square which used to accommodate the Black House or House of the Inquisition

The Palma main square once accommodated the Black House or house of the Inquisition, reminding us that Majorca had an independent inquisitor as from 1413. The square is the confluence of Jaime II and Colón streets which constitute two important commercial thoroughfares of the old city. In the 13th century Jaime II street was called calle de los Judíos (Jews street).

The new synagogue was located behind the current Conciliary Seminar and was closed after the attack of 1391, experiencing a second spell of activity between 1419 and 1435 with the final conversion of the Majorcan Jews. After the attack of 1391, all the common assets of the aljama (synagogue, cemetery, butcher´s, baths, hospital etc.) were subject to the royal treasury. A commissioner was sent specifically to Majorca to take possession of everything and thanks to the notarial act drawn up at the time a description of the synagogue´s situation has been preserved:

Rimonim in the cathedral treasure

On January 12th 1493, Fernando the Catholic expelled the Jews from Sicily. The Cammarata synagogue on the island had to shed itself of those assets which were hard to transport. This included two worked silver Rimonim, of Gothic tradition and bearing Hebrew inscriptions. According to the historian Gabriel Llompart, these were sold by some Jews to the Majorcan merchant Francesc Puig who in 1493 sent them as an offering to the Virgin of the cathedral of Majorca.

The merchants who took part in the purchase-sale were Francesc Puig, Anthoni Serra and on behalf of the Cathedral´s chapterhouse:

Once on the island, some long silver bars were added which are those which can be seen today. They were thus Christianised, becoming scepters of Primicerius or singer in certain solemn Cathedral acts. For instance, in 1634 the Rimonim, converted into scepters, were used for the chanting of short responsories which were carried out at the end of the Little Hours and carried out by two capitulants.

The Rimonim had various Hebrew inscriptions. The inscribed words include six which are precisely the six names that give psalm 18 (19) to the Law of God, in its second part: Torat, Hedut, Piqqude, Misvat, Yrhat, Mishpete. The candlestick holders of the headers bear the legend:

Montesión Church

Criança street gives out into the monumental Montesión church whose rich gateway opens out onto another of the main arteries of the call. In this same year of 1299 in which he confirms the Jews´ rights to reside in this area, Jaime II authorises the construction of the main synagogue; however, the works did not start until 1310 and it was confiscated in 1315. In 1348 King Pedro IV the Ceremonious granted the building or part of it to Bernat de Vallflor and gave him permission to build a baker´s, though the property would later go back into Jewish hands.

In 1571 the chapel was knocked down and enlarged to build the current church.

In the area Joaquim Ma. Bover found in 1861 a tomb headstone near the aqueduct which, passing via the Santa Margalida gate, allowed the entry of the water from the Town Fountain. Fidel Fita, who had the chance to see the inscription, dated the headstone from its calligraphy in the 14th century. It was a one and a half metre wide limestone piece fragmented into two segments and in truncated pyramid shape according to a model which was very common throughout the 14th century. The inscription, severely deteriorated, was made with characters of around 9 or 10 cm and the following can be read: