Jewish Tavira — A Hidden History
By Flemming Berthelsen
For centuries a Jewish community of doctors, goldsmiths, merchants and notaries helped shape Tavira — until the royal edict of 1496 forced everyone to convert or leave. This story follows their traces through four places in the old town: the square where their history is on display today, the walled town that held the medieval judiaria, the convent built over the likely site of their synagogue, and the river that carried the persecuted towards new lives abroad. On the map you will also find the field west of the old town where a spade brought their burial ground back to light in 1979.