RASGO - Red de Juderías de España. Caminos de Sefarad

The Basilica of San Vicente from the city wall

The first documentary evidence of the Hebrew presence in Ávila dates back to 1144: Alfonso VII assigned the tithe pertaining to the Jews' annual income to the Cathedral. This is the first specific reference but there are many preceding versions further steeped in mythology until the actual foundation of the city. Some say that there were Jews in Ávila well before in Hispano-Roman times. Further evidence backing up this theory is the very legend of how the original Basilica of San Vicente was founded in the 4th century when on the same site as it is in today a Jew built the first martyrial church dedicated to the Vincentian saints Sabina and Cristeta.

In his Historia de las grandezas de la ciudad de Ávila (History of the great Events of the City of Avila), Friar Luis Ariz stated in 1607 - after the taking of the city from the Moslems by the Castilian king Alfonso VI - the first contingents of Jews arrived in around 1085 as part of the repopulation being arranged by his son-in-law Count Raymond of Burgundy. This is how the name of Rabbi Centén arose in the first chronicles of the occupation of Ávila after several centuries during which it was regarded as no man's land, the frontier between the Christian and Moslem kingdoms.

The Jews of Ávila were mainly involved in craft-based activity, particularly rich cloth trading. Nissim ben Abraham wrote in this city too, better known as the Ávila prophet, his Book of the wonders of wisdom, and here the heights of Christian mysticism were reached by Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross, the offspring of New Christians rooted in old families of Jewish stock.

Reyes Católicos' Street

The Almohad invasion of 1147 had major repercussions on the Hebrew expansion through the peninsula. The threat of this people led to the exodus of Jews and Christian from the south of the Peninsula to the centre and north of Spain.

With Alfonso VIII (1155-1214) the Jews' situation did not vary greatly. The monarch generally treated his subjects as equals in terms of the law. It was attempted to increase the Jews in the Court which gave rise to criticism but this favour came at a price: Jewish collaboration was vital for commercial life and administration. What's more, the Jewish quarter contributed a significant amount in taxes which was usually granted by the king: in 1176, the king granted to the Cathedral and its bishop Sancho a third of the income he received by way of tolls from Jews at a time when the Jewish quarter in Ávila was one of the most important in Castile. At this time the Jewish community was prosperous and had achieved a greater degree of harmony than in other Castilian Jewish quarters.

This policy did not change under Fernando III (1199-1252). The Council of Valladolid of 1228 led to restrictions on the free movement of Jews in streets and commerce on markets, but the King did not apply the new rules to the Jews of Ávila. Sancho IV «the Brave» followed his father's policy and showed a liking for the Hebrew community from Ávila. In 1285 Yuçaf de Ávila was the tax collector for the bishopric and he owned houses in the city. In this year the Jewish population had increased so much both in number and influence that they refused to pay the tithe of their income.

In the early 14th century the Jewish population lived side-by-side with Christians. The Jews initially inhabited the Lomo Street area, today Esteban Domingo. During the course of this century and the 15th century the Jews gradually began to move to the Mercado Chico zone, a very commercial area. Everything changed with the Courts of Toledo Decree in 1480 which ruled that they should live withdrawn and separate. So they settled in an area delimited by Vallespín Street (the former Zapateros Street), the Santo Domingo church and the Polentinos Palace with the town wall forming the southern limit.

Callejón de las Nieves, donde se encuentra la Casa del Rabino

In the late 14th century the relations between Christians and Jews started to deteriorate in Castile. But Ávila continued to stand out from this general trend and its Hebrew community expanded further, taking on the mantle in the second half of the century as a people, which had saved the faith, the masoret. The uprisings and disputes brought about by the heights for power of the Trastámara had little impact on Ávila. The worst was yet to come in 1391. At that time almost half a century had elapsed since the death of King Alfonso XI whose attitude to the Jews of Ávila had been positive despite some hostile movements in synods and councils. Pedro I generally adopted a more peace-seeking approach towards the Jewish community in the Courts of 1351 in Valladolid which earned him the title of the Jews' friend, a name which sought to insult the monarch who allowed them to put up new synagogues and expand the old ones. With Pedro I but later too with Henry II, Ávila suffered attacks by some groups who would steal and burn commercial documents and letter of undertaking between 1360 and 1366 owing to the moratorium on Jewish debts, time which some rioters used to get hold of promissory notes and guarantees. However, the King saved the day for the Jews. But in 1375 this same king allowed pressure to be put on the Hebrew community to attend the religious debates in the churches, one of which was protagonised by the convert Juan de Valladolid and Moses ha-Cohen of Tordesillas. Moses ha-Cohen wrote:

The growing anti-Semitic feeling in Castile gradually led to the conversion of Jews and the start of Crypto-Judaism. At this time Juan I came to the throne and despite a ban on the sermons of Ferrand Martínez, the Archdeacon of Écija, of the most important anti-Semitic preachers, anti-Judaism worsened. Ferrand Martínez became extremely popular because of his sermons and preaching which continually whipped up hatred of the Jews and, through them, he became the great driving force behind the anti-Jewish revolt of 1391. Juan I had a particular affection for Ávila Cathedral and in 1384 he granted it an income of three thousand maravedis for the so-called pechos judíos (Jewish «head-taxes»), payable in November of each year, a privilege which was confirmed in 1391 by Enrique III.

The cathedral from the city wall

The anti-Jewish slaughters of 1391 did not reach Ávila but the climate of concern and unrest with the general situation began to make itself felt. The Crown did all it could to play defuse the situation but Vincent Ferrer's sermons in 1411 in Valladolid led to many Jews fleeing the town. Ávila was still an oasis in this tense atmosphere and not even the sermons of Alonso de Espina in the mid-15th century could make any impact on this status. The segregation of the Jews envisaged in the Pragmática of 1412 was not applied because the Cabildo (chapterhouse) rented houses and premises to Jews and was not interested in any measure which could have led to a fall in its revenue. The Jews continued to live in the streets neighbouring the Cathedral or between Mercado Chico (small market) and Grande (large market) on Zapateros Street, San Juan square, Arco de Montenegro and from the Gate of Bad Luck to the stretch of the city wall at Adaja Bridge.

In 1442, when the bull Cantate Domino of Eugene IV reached Ávila, Álvaro de Luna, King´s favourite and with close link to the city, rejected its implementation and convinced Juan II to grant favours to the Jewish settlement in the Pragmática of Arévalo. The bull, famous for its thesis «There is no salvation outside the Church», requested the conversion of Jews to Christianity. After Enrique IV came to the throne in 1454 he adopted the previous laws and authorised unlimited commerce, a free market and economic freedom which benefitted the Jews of Ávila. Some people wished to interrupt this approach after ten years of his reign with the sentence of Medina del Campo which, amongst other measures, included the separation of Jews in ghettos and the humiliation of obliging Jewish citizens to wear a sign on their clothing, the ban on wearing doublets and silk attire or from holding palace office. Henry IV prevented the sentence of Medina from being applied, leading to his being deposed in the so-called farce of Ávila when the League of Nobles led by Juan Pacheco and allied with some anti-Jewish elements of the city, proclaimed Alfonso, the monarch's brother, as King and revoked all the rulings which had favoured the Jews.

The reign of the Catholic Monarchs seemed hopeful. Many Jews, like Abraham Senior, had supported the monarchs. Nevertheless, the Courts of Madrigal of 1476 implemented measures such as the withdrawal of the Moorish quarters' capacity to judge criminal lawsuits and the requirement that Jews wear a roela bermeja (golden or silver circle). The new measures created conflictual situations in Ávila both in terms of the attire and the restrictions on usury. The Jewish Quarter leaders recommended that money should not be lent under these terms which put at stake the city's funding. Faced by this situation, Isabel I looked for formulas to prevent the damaged caused to Jews and thereby prevent them from leaving Ávila, a threat which she held in fear in view of their importance to the economy and commerce. In 1478 and in Medina del Campo the Catholic Monarchs granted their Charter in favour of the Jews of Ávila which constitutes the first case of habeas corpus applied to a Jewish community in European history:

The Municipal ordinances of the city of 1485 stressed the long-rooted tradition of tolerance and good relations: their text ignored and played down any kind of humiliating discrimination or rules offensive to the members of religious minorities and they granted everyone the same rights as citizens:

Western Façade of St. Peter's Church

In this way, the Ordinances moved away from the criteria of the previous year's Synod and the Church's recommendations and they distanced themselves from what was the norm in most Castilian districts which were always endeavouring to reduce their rights. The pro-Jewish stance of the Council of Ávila was supported by the Catholic Monarchs who were in Murcia one year later in 1488, authorising certain rights to the Non-Christian community, in particular as regards the trading of foodstuffs.

In the last quarter of the 15th century the Council which had defended the Jews' rights, denied them the title of residents. Under the «enclosure» law the Jews of Ávila had to move to the area around the Gate of Bad Luck, into a very small zone considering the large number of Jews in the City. This wouldn't be for long. On May 1st 1492 the edict of expulsion reached Ávila. The Jews of the city sold their property and homes. Their synagogues and cemeteries and all their communal properties became Council property. All aspects of local life felt the impact and this measure was decisive for the city's fall from grace, immersed as it was in a socio-economic crisis which lasted for several centuries. The expulsion of the Jews was a hammer blow which did not seem to garner any support amongst the local population.