News

Friday, May 10, 2013

Archaeological remains found out in the call or ancient Jewish quarter

May 10th, 2013

The discovery of the remains of a Jewish house, built in the thirteenth century on the site currently occupied by the Museum of Jewish History, allows a new and better interpretation of an emblematic and significant area in the ancient Jewish quarter Girona. Thanks to recent archaeological work, several rooms and a vaulted cistern have been identified and found out. The house was perfectly fitted in vertical cuts on the natural rock underground.

According to archaeological data, which have been compared with the documents, at the end of the fourteenth century this place suffered a fire, probably caused by the attack in the summer of 1391. From 1435 until 1492, the building, or what was left, became part of the complex of the synagogue, which was located in the upper and central courtyard of the Bonastruc ça Porta Centre. In those days, the southeastern part of the property could have been the Jewish butcher shop. In 1492, due to the expulsion, the building was sold, demolished and turned into a courtyard. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, new walls and sewers have been built here.

From tomorrow, Saturday May 11th, these new archaeological sites of the ancient Jewish quarter, properly documented and marked, will be visible from the front room of the Museum of Jewish History.