Class 2: Medieval Spanish Synagogues and the Aesthetics of Power and Identity

While Jews were an integral part of Iberian society, they also established separate sacred spaces for their spiritual and communal life. Each synagogue in Spain was built to create a certain ambience and express specific values.

Ibn Shoshan Synagogue (Santa María la Blanca)

If we look at the Ibn Shoshan synagogue in Toledo, we see an open floor plan marked by rows of columns and arches topped off by elegant capitals. The space is reminiscent of the endless rows of columns and arches in the Great Mosque of Córdoba. When Córdoba was conquered by the Christians in 1236, the Great Mosque, too, was transformed into a church. Toledo at this time was under Christian rule but was also home to a sizable Muslim minority. The Jews were loyal subjects of the Christian kings, and—like those kings—chose to evoke a style associated with Islamic aesthetics for their synagogue. The synagogue was renamed Santa María la Blanca (“Saint Mary the White”) when it was turned into a church in the early fourteenth century.

Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia Synagogue (El Tránsito)

A short walk from the Ibn Shoshan synagogue was another synagogue, this one built as the family chapel of Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, the treasurer of Pedro I of Castile (1334–1369) and one of the richest Jews in Spain. This courtier chose to line the walls of his synagogue with engravings of biblical verses in Hebrew script, smaller lines of Arabic inscriptions, and a forest of vines and other floral plaster work. This design evokes the ornate plaster work and calligraphy that could be found in the Alhambra palace in Muslim-controlled Granada or the Alcázar of Seville, a palace that was lavishly expanded under King Pedro in the Nasrid style like the Alhambra. On the wall that held the ark with the Torah scrolls, Abulafia set a plaque in which he declared his loyalty to the king and expressed his pride in being his servant. Again, a loyal servant to a Christian king created a synagogue that evoked a distinctly Islamic aesthetic. This synagogue, too, was eventually turned into a church. It was given the name El Tránsito, referring to an event in the life of Mary.

Córdoba Synagogue

In the Jewish Quarter of Córdoba is a synagogue with a similar aesthetic, likely also privately owned. A plaque inside the synagogue, on the eastern wall, refers to one Isaac Mehab ben Ephraim Wadawa, who may have been the owner or the architect, and dates the synagogue to the Jewish year 5075, either 1314 or 1315. The interior walls are decorated with intricate geometric and floral patterns. The synagogue was later turned into a hospital for patients with rabies. In 1588, it was acquired by the shoemakers’ guild, who turned it into a hermitage dedicated to Saint Crispin, the patron saint of shoemakers. 

Aesthetic Choices: Abstraction, Calligraphy, and Faith

In his legal treatise Siete Partidas (“Seven Parts”), the Christian king Alfonso X described a synagogue as a space where “the name of God is praised.” To build their Spanish synagogues, Jews searched for an aesthetic language that resonated with their monotheistic faith—as opposed, for example, to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity—and their discomfort with Catholic figural iconography, such as paintings and statues of Jesus and the saints, which seemed akin to forbidden idolatry. By choosing the abstract geometric and floral patterns favored by the Islamic culture of Muslim Spain that also shunned iconography, the Jews of Spain found a way to differentiate themselves from their Christian neighbors. And at the same time, they were adopting an aesthetic seen as sophisticated and desirable by the Christian monarchs they served. These stunning works of spiritual architecture, however, carry a dark history.

The Fragile Position of Jews in Medieval Spain

Samuel Abulafia met a tragic end just a few years after inaugurating the synagogue. Pedro became paranoid and worried that his formerly trusted Jewish adviser was stealing from him. Pedro had Samuel imprisoned, and he died under torture. Such was the precarious position of Jews in medieval Spain: one moment trusted and valued by the king, confident enough to build a monumental synagogue—and the next moment losing everything. 

As one can see from the current names of these two buildings (Santa María la Blanca and El Tránsito), they did not remain as synagogues. Between the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 throughout Castile and Aragon and the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, all the synagogues of Spain, including these two architectural masterpieces, were turned into churches. In the riots of 1391, many Jews were killed. Many others were forced to convert to Christianity. Some of the people attending these newly consecrated churches may well have been forced converts who had frequented them as Jews when the buildings had been synagogues.

20th-Century Epilogue: Sephardic Return to Spain

Spain did not allow Jews to return officially until 1968, and even then, Jews arrived only in modest waves. The Jewish community of Madrid was founded mostly by Jews from towns in northern Morocco, such as Tangiers, Tetuán, and Melilla, that were under Spanish colonial rule for parts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These Jews descended from the original exiles who had left Spain in 1492. Five hundred years after the expulsion, they built a major Jewish community center, with an impressive synagogue in Madrid. (The entrance, however, is almost hidden, located in a narrow back street, and guards are stationed at the door for protection, suggesting a level of caution about their acceptance in Spanish society.) This community chose two important motifs for their sanctuary that transmit an important story about their identity as Spanish Jews. First, the walls are lined with Jerusalem stone, connecting this synagogue with the holy city and the land of Israel. And second, on one of the walls, a series of Hebrew verses are etched in the calligraphic style of the El Tránsito synagogue of Toledo. These two details convey a powerful story about the layers of exile, memory, and resilience that Sephardic Jews carried with them: first, with the original exile from Jerusalem and, second, with the expulsion from their homes in Spain.