El Call, Barcelona's Jewish Quarter

You are in the Call, Barcelona's old Jewish quarter. The streets narrow, light barely reaches the ground and there are hardly any signs explaining what this neighbourhood once was. That silence is part of its story.

1A thriving community

In the Middle Ages this was home to one of the most important Jewish communities in the Crown of Aragon: doctors, moneylenders, translators, rabbis and craftsmen. The Call had its synagogues, baths and school, and its scholars kept in touch with the great centres of learning of their time.

2The summer of 1391

In August 1391 a wave of anti-Jewish violence that had begun in Seville reached Barcelona. The Call was attacked and looted, and many of its people were murdered or forced to convert. The community never recovered. A century later, in 1492, the expulsion of the Jews from the Spanish kingdoms closed that chapter for good.

3The Marlet stone

Find the tablet with Hebrew letters on the corner. The accepted translation, by Josep Maria Millàs i Vallicrosa, says it marks a «pious foundation of Rabbi Samuel ha-Sardí», and it ends with a formula usually read as «may his light burn for ever». What you see is a replica put up in 1981; the original is kept in the Barcelona City History Museum.

For a long time people said Europe's oldest synagogue stood right here; specialists are still arguing over that identification.

Nearby on Carrer de Marlet, a small venue presents itself as the old Main Synagogue. It's an appealing hypothesis, but there's no consensus.

4What to look for

• The Hebrew tablet and its translation.
• How narrow the streets are, still following their medieval layout.
• The street names, such as Sant Domènec del Call.