📜 Key Dates in the History of the Jews in Seville

🏺 Roman and Visigothic periods

There is evidence of Jewish presence in Seville from Roman times, a continuity that was maintained during the Visigothic period and later under Islamic rule.

⚔️ 1146 · Almohad expulsion

The arrival of the Almohads caused the temporary disappearance of much of Seville’s Jewish community. Many Jews fled to other, more tolerant territories.

👑 1248 · Christian conquest of Seville

After the conquest of Seville by Ferdinand III, Jews began to settle again in the Christian city. The Crown initially favoured their settlement because of their economic and administrative importance.

🕍 1252 · Organisation of the Jewish Quarter

Alfonso X granted several mosques to be converted into synagogues, consolidating the structure of Seville’s Jewish Quarter around today’s districts of Santa Cruz and San Bartolomé.

💰 13th-14th centuries · Economic and political rise

During the 13th and 14th centuries, many Jewish families in Seville reached prominent positions in the Castilian administration as financiers, treasurers, tax farmers and royal advisers.

✡️ 1350-1369 · Splendour of Seville’s Jewish Quarter

During the reign of Peter I, Seville’s Jewish Quarter experienced one of its periods of greatest prosperity and cultural and economic relevance.

🏛️ Late 14th century · Samuel Abravanel

At this time, the figure of Samuel Abravanel stood out. He later converted to Christianity as Juan Sánchez de Sevilla and became one of the great financiers and chief accountants linked to the Castilian Crown.

⚠️ 1379 · Crisis and anti-Jewish tensions

The enormous wealth and influence of some Jewish financiers fuelled social resentment and tensions against Seville’s Hebrew community.

🔥 March-June 1391 · Pogrom of Seville

The anti-Jewish preaching of Archdeacon Ferrán Martínez and the climate of social crisis led to the assault on Seville’s Jewish Quarter.

📅 On 6 June 1391, the great massacre took place: thousands of Jews were killed, others were forced to accept baptism and much of the Jewish Quarter was destroyed. This episode would deeply mark the history of Sephardic Spain.

⛪ 1393 · Conversion of synagogues into churches

After the assault of 1391, many Sevillian synagogues were confiscated and converted into Christian churches, such as Santa María la Blanca and San Bartolomé.

📉 15th century · Decline of the Sevillian aljama

Seville’s Jewish community was greatly weakened after 1391. A fiscal document from 1437 already described the Jews of Seville as “few and poor”.

🚪 1492 · Expulsion of the Jews

The Catholic Monarchs decreed the expulsion of the Jews from Castile and Aragon. In Seville, the impact was smaller than in other cities because, after the persecutions of 1391, relatively few practising Jews remained in the city.