Delve into Palma's Jewish quarter and find out its secrets

Jewish Majorca will reveal the secrets of Palma's historic Jewish quarter with a tour of the old Jewish neighbourhoods and other locations in Majorca that have connections to the island's Sephardic legacy.

The medieval Jewish quarter in Palma was called Call. Lower Call covered present-day Carrer de les Monjas, Carrer de la Plateria, Plaça de Tagamanent and the Carrer de Sant Bartomeu, where a synagogue was established. From the 1300s onwards, the Jewish community were moved to Upper Call in the north-eastern part of the city, where they were forced to live and sleep, but could not work. In fact, many Jewish people ran their businesses outside Call. 

We know that at the beginning of the 14th century, Call was protected by a wall with four gates. The neighbourhood was made up of six large blocks connected by two main roads: Calle Sol and the junction of present-day Calle Monti-Sion and Calle Seminari Vell. 

Inside these blocks, homes were arranged around a central courtyard or patio, some of which were connected by a series of narrow, dead-end alleyways. Nowadays, Na Dragona and Can Conrado are two good examples of these intimate connections between homes. 

The Jewish community declined following an attack on Upper Call in 1391, carried out by a mob. The attack claimed 300 lives and in the following years, there were mass conversions and intense persecution by the Inquisition. The converts were called chuetas and their descendants were socially excluded until the mid-20th century.

Nowadays, Palma's Jewish past has piqued interest and become one of the main attractions for cultural tourism. Many people recognise themselves as descendants of this ancient Jewish community, and have even created associations to recover and promote the memory of Majorcan Jews. 

In fact, Palma has been part of the Network of Pilgrimages to Spanish Sephardic Jewish Quarters since 2005 and celebrates the European Day of Jewish Culture each September.