RASGO - Red de Juderías de España. Caminos de Sefarad

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Dertosa was first recorded as a Roman colony in the middle of the first century BC, founded by legionaries who had been granted lands in Hibera after Julius Caesar's triumph in Ilerda (present day Lleida), in Augustus' times.

After Tarraco's destruction in the 5th century A.D., Visigoths found a prosperous and completely Romanised city, which accounts for their decision to respect its Latin language, administration and social order. This is why it is usually suggested that the Roman influence in Tortosa remained for some 900 years, until the Muslim conquest between the years 713 and 718. At the end of the 10th century, and due to Córdoba's caliphate's dismembering, Turtuxa became the capital of Tortosa's taifa.

Nowadays, Tortosa is the Baix Ebre's capital, as well as the centre of a wide Diocese. The river Ebro and its bridges are one of the main distinctive features of the city. Some years ago, in 1986, Tortosa celebrated the city's creation's bimillennium.

After Turtuxa's (the Muslim name for Tortosa) conquest in 1148 by Count Ramon Berenguer IV, the old Arabian shipyards were donated to the Jewish community for the building of 60 dwellings, which was the origin of Tortosa's Jewry or Call Vell (in catalan), running from present day carrer Jaume Tió Noé to the barranco del Célio. This is the first account of a neighbourhood inhabited exclusively by Jewish people, although their presence can be recorded as soon as the 6th century. Later, in the 13th century, the New Jewry or Call Nou (in catalan) was built. Both have kept their labyrinth-like streets and some of their place-names untouched.

The famous trilingual tombstone proves the existence of Jewish people in Visigoth times, although it is thought that Jewish presence in Tortosa can be traced back to Roman times.

During the period of Muslim dominion, Turtuxa was an exchange spot between the Christian and Muslim communities due to its frontier position and its commercial tradition. Thus, it is no surprise that Tortosa became a relevant colony which witnessed the presence of figures of renown in the cultural context of the Peninsula, such as Menahem ben Saruk, a tradesman, poet and philologist, author of a Hebrew grammar based on the Arabic language which was commissioned by Hasday Ibn Shaprut from Córdoba.

Another relevant character was Ibrahim ben Iacob, a physician who, by writing about his commercial journeys provided a rather valuable geographical description which was very influential among Arabian essayists.

Tortosa's aljama was one of the most important in the country, and trade and financial activities by the most prominent members of the community benefited indirectly the Christian community. In the 14th century, characters such as Isach and Jafudà Marçili and Abraham Mair, were the bankers who financed the Crown's enterprises, and to whom the city turned to in times of distress.

The 14th century saw the beginning of a period of strong social pressure against the Jews in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, which resulted in migration and massive conversions.

The process of raising hostility against Jews in Tortosa culminated in the 1391 revolts, when most of the Jewish neighbourhoods in the peninsula were pillaged. Although the revolts were basically caused by economic reasons, these soon became religious motives. In the case of Tortosa, the attacks were not as cruel as in other places, thanks to the royal command to seclude the aljama's members in the Castell de la Suda, in order to protect them from a possible attack.

De las murallas quedan aún hoy en pie la torre redonda llamada Torre del Célio o Grossa de Vimpeçol y el tramo de muralla que une a esta con las avançades de Sant Joan.

During Pedro el Ceremonioso's reign, during the last third of the 14th century, and on the occasion of a war against Castilla, the city was endowed with a new walled enclosure. Its building meant the enlargement of the walled urban space, which co-existed with the old enclosure's walls, which remained inside the new ones. The medieval building keeps the surveillance track and the top battlements almost unspoilt.

From the 15th century walls, we keep the round tower called Torre del Célio or Grossa de Vimpeçol and the wall fragment uniting the tower to The avançades de Sant Joan.

19th century urban improvements and the building of extensions meant the demolishing of a part of the wall going from torre del Célio or Grossa de Vimpeçol to the Torre de Vimpeçol de Ribarech or Rodona, which was on the riverbank. From this section it is still possible to follow the track parallel to the barranco (gully) del Célio.

The Gate, which was located at the end of the street called Major de Remolins, was one of the main accesses to the city and linked it to the population nucleuses on the left margin of the river, as well as being the royal path's exit towards Zaragoza.

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