Jewish Quarter

The Jewish Quarter is known as the Call Jueu, a name historically used to refer to the Jewish community ghettos in the Catalan cities. The Call of Barcelona was located in the current Gothic Quarter neighborhood in the surroundings of the Cathedral. It consisted in a group of very narrow alleys between the current Palau de la Generalitat and the street of Banys Nous. One of the two main doors of the ghetto stood between the Plaça Sant Jaume and the street of Sant Honorat. The main street was the one today known as Sant Domènec del Call.

There are indications of the organized existence of Jews in the Barcelona since the 10^th century. They played a very important economic role during the reign of the Aragon counts and kings. The Jewish community of Barcelona was a reference center for the Jews from the whole medieval Europe and it reached four thousand inhabitants. In 1267 Jaume I granted a permission to build the Sinagoga Major. Both the attack on the Barcelona Call, a century earlier on 5 August 1391, and the subsequent persecution of the Jewish community at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition led to the destruction or disappearance of a good part of the Hebrew cultural and artistic legacy in our city.

Nowadays there are hardly a few remains of the jewish presence in Barcelona. With today's urban layout, the borders of the old Call, a maze of narrow, shady streets, is the Carrer del Bisbe, Sant Sever, Call and Arc de Sant Ramon (between Jaume I station on metro line L4 and Liceu station on metro line L3). The Jewish community had built up to five cult temples, buth only one of them, the Sinagoga Major in the street Marlet 5, is still standing. It has been discovered almost accidentally when its owners have put it out on sale at the end of 1995. In the surroundings some vestiges of the Jewish inheritance are still conserved, as the mikves (or Jewish ritual bathrooms) and it’s possible to request permission to visit the old mens’ bathrooms in the furniture store Oliver (C/Banys Nous, 10). In the street crossing of Banys Nous with the Palla there is a Crypt, a cozy place to have a drink at, located where the womens’ bathrooms were situated originally. It is still possible to see some Hebrew writings on the Cituat Vella walls. Some 15th century buildings, as the Palacio de Lloctinent, used flagstones from the Montjuic Jewish cemetery for their construction.

There are guided visits to the Call Jueu for adults, students and children organized periodacally by MHCB (Museu d'Història de la Ciutat). The visit starts at Plaça de la Catedral (Hotel Colón, Avda. Catedral 7) and finishes at the Plaça del Rei.