Castelo de Vide

Poejo Boutique Hotel is located at Santo António das Areias, around 15km from Castelo de Vide.

Other interesting places to visit: Marvão, Santo António das Areias e Portalegre.

"Land of Jews. A place of rare beauty where whichever the entrance approched, running water is heard, flowing from pouring springs that come from that generous bank of the mountain serra de S. Paulo...."

The village was conquered from the Moors on the year of 1148, received the first charter at 1310. A 17th and 18th century fortified wall protects the medieval part of town, with its maze of narrow streets lined with lime-washed houses which are decorated with beautiful Gothic door frames carved out of the granite. The Judaria stretches from the gates of the castle to the Fonte da Vila, a magnificent 16th century marble wash-house/ fountain. Castelo de Vide is a village of 4,200 inhabitants which reveals the cultural and religious diversity of the people who have successively occupied it.

The Jewishs Quarter

In Marvão, the military confrontations between one side and the other of the borders were habitual as the movement from the Fronteira de Torre da Portagem. In 1942, many fleeing spanish Jews passed through Torre de Portagem as a result of the edict of the expulsion by the Catholic Monarchy. Some authors put the number at around 15,000 people who entered Portugal by way of Marvão.

In 1996 a memorial stone, commemorative of the Iberic percussion of the sephardic Jews, was placed in this tower. A museum center heritage of the region was also constructed here. Of significance in the region are Alpalhão, Nisa, Portalegre and on the order side of the border, Valencia de Alcantara.

In the 15th Century various documents testify to the existence of the Jewish Community in the village.

The Jewish quarter was laid out on the eastern of the village. Althought establish in one of the most troubled zones, the district was crossed by a fundamental axis of communication of the castle with the exterior, and vice versa. Some material evidence of the Jewish presence in Castelo de Vide still remain. Of special relevance is the building which is believe to have functioned as the medieval synanogue. It is located at the meeting point of the street of the Jewish quarter with the Rua da Fonte (Fountain Street). Its single volume architecture shows a period abandonment, which is confirmed in its archaeological materials.

In the right border f one of ogival doors to the floor above, the mark of Mezuzah can be identified, answering to the old Jewish tradition that obligated the believer to locate in the side of their doors a scroll in which in inscribed part of the fundamental prayer of the tribe of Israel.

Other buildings on the street of the Jewish quarter, on Rua da Fonte, or in the side streets of the Jewish Quarter still show what remains of the millennial Jew, and ecord his faith in the borders of the doors. The establishment of the Inquisition and the publication of thr edict of expulsion of the Jews by Spanish Monarchy, King Fernando and Queen Isabel, the “Catholic Monarchy”, contributed to he growth of the Jewish Quarter in Castelo de Vide. It maintains in the names of the streets as testimony to the Jewish presence, as well as the persecution of the Holy Order of the new Christians.

The region of São Mamede, a privilege zone from the point of view of the bequested material, Castelo de Vide, Marvão, Nisa and Alpalhão were obligatory visits in the Judaic Route of the region.

In this region are found the testimonies of the lives of these communities, and also of their deaths. Allow a look at a few of the most notable moments in the lives of the Jews. The Judaic legend constitutes a cultural heritage that’s finds expression in the uses, customs and so also in the forms that man identified the space that he surround himself with others who lived there.

The Jews didn´t form just one exclusive urban district, but shared spaces with Christians and Muslims within the Jewish Quarters surrounding their Synagogues. You can find example of this in Castelo de Vide, Plasencia, Caceres, Coria, Trujillo.

In the 1560’s, the Cacererian Hebrew map included more that 40 communities.

At the village of Valencia de Alcantara, beside the Portuguese border, few traces remain of the original urban center.

Jewish Quarter in Castelo de Vide

Book your stay at Poejo Boutique Hotel and visit it’s beautiful surroundings.

See Location of Poejo Hotel in Alentejo.

Other villages and cities with interest: Marvão | Santo António das Areias | Portalegre