The presence of Jews in the ancient and prosperous city of Al-Mariyya Bayyana allows us to trace a route through Sephardic Almería: this is a little-known aspect of this city, which in recent years has been gaining renewed value due to the interest it arouses not only among Jewish travelers but also among cultural tourists in general.
Few Vestiges Remain
The first thing to note is that this route through Sephardic Almería is based primarily on documentary references and evocations, as few vestiges of buildings associated with the Jewish population remain. However, with a little imagination and with the help of some recently installed signage, it is feasible to walk through some streets and areas of the city with the memory of the Sephardim in mind.
Among the main signage we mentioned are the plaques installed by the Almería City Council, in collaboration with the Sephardic association Maguen Sefarad, on some of the streets that were part of Almería’s Jewish quarters. Furthermore, the study of historical documents such as the Book of Records of Surveys and Distribution of Almería, from the time of the Catholic Monarchs (1492), allows us to trace an approximate route of that community that coexisted with Muslims and Christians in medieval times.
Places That Can Compose the Route
Naturally, the route through Sephardic Almería must take us to the Jewish quarter… or rather, to the Jewish quarters, as there were two: the old Jewish quarter and the new Jewish quarter. This is because the first was active during Late Antiquity and in the early times of Al-Andalus, especially during the era of the Caliphate of Córdoba and the taifa kingdoms. However, the brief Castilian conquest under the reign of Alfonso VII (1147-1157) and the subsequent recovery by the Almoravid Muslims disrupted the previously peaceful coexistence, so that both Christians and Jews ended up abandoning Almería. It would not be until probably the 15th century that Jews from Murcia settled again in Almería, now under the more open-minded rule of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada.
Therefore, the old Jewish quarter was the one that flourished in the 10th and 11th centuries, and was located around the suburb of Al-Hawd, currently the Pescadería-La Chanca neighborhood. This Jewish quarter had its own cemetery, in the vicinity of the current Plaza de San Roque, and certainly had a synagogue, which has not yet been located. Strolling through the narrow streets of this neighborhood, with some of the aforementioned informative plaques, invites one to imagine the intimate atmosphere that must have existed here then.
On the other hand, the new Jewish quarter would have been located in the area around the Puerta de Pechina, although no material remains exist of this new Jewish neighborhood. Walking along Jovellanos Street and through the Civil War shelters, more signs appear along our way to evoke the Sephardic population that lived here (about 700 inhabitants, according to some sources), probably engaged in the commercial sphere of the Kingdom of Granada, which had one of its most important ports here.
And beyond the old Jewish quarter and the new Jewish quarter, strolling through some of Almería’s historical monuments will evoke that period of coexistence among the three cultures, such as the Alcazaba, commissioned by Abd al-Rahman III in the 10th century. The panoramic views from the top of this military enclosure allow one to understand Almería’s strategic position in those times, which led the Umayyad caliphs and taifa and Nasrid kings to promote and protect it, and Christians to desire it, until the definitive conquest by the Catholic Monarchs in 1489 and the subsequent expulsion of Jews in June 1492.
