In any discussion of Seville's history, the dramatic massacre of the Seville juderia (Jewish Quarter) in 1391 cannot be omitted. The facts of this tragedy are given in Modesto Lafuente's "History of Spain", in Joaquin Guichot's "History of the City of Seville" and in other reliable texts of indisputable moral integrity. I want to make this clear, emphasizing that this is not a page of the anti-Spanish "black legend" but rather a clear fact, proven, and recounted by serious and truthful historians, including priests.

The events took place as follows: In spring of 1391, the Archdeacon of Ecija, Don Fernando Martinez (Ferrant Martinez), began to go around Seville, preaching and inciting Sevillians against the Jews. In that time, Jews, Muslims and Christians all lived in Seville, with no major difficulties in their coexistence, more or less as the three groups live today in Ceuta, and Melilla, or how they lived not so long ago under the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco.

After Saint Ferdinand's conquest of Seville, the kings' authority had protected the rights of the Jewish and Muslim minorities, granting them the open practice of their respective religions, in a mosque in the present-day Plaza of St Pedro, and in three synagogues: one in today's Plaza of Santa Cruz, one in what is now the Church of St Mary the White and the third in today's temple of Saint Bartholomew. Saint Ferdinand, as well as Alphonso X and his successors, had made sure no one used force or prejudice against Jews or Moriscos. But, then Don Fernando Martinez went much further in his preachings than prudence might suggest, raising popular consciousness against the Jews, under a cloak of religious fervour. In March, the hatred he fomented burst out, provoking a popular movement, in which the populace, always ready for any kind of excess, entered the judería, pillaged the shops and beat the inhabitants. On learning of this, Don Alvar Perez de Guzman, Chief Constable of the city, arrived immediately with reinforcements, and the mayors Rui Perez de Esquivel and Fernando Arias de Cuadros arrested some of the wrongdoers, two of whom were condemned to be flogged.

Nevertheless, the Archdeacon of Ecija did not stop his anti-Jewish preaching; in fact, he went even further, and the mobs once more plundered the Jewish quarter and beat its residents. The damage reached such proportions that Don Alvar Perez de Guzman could not muster enough officers to control the mob and asked for help from the nobles, who did arrive with reinforcements and arms, and managed to quell the mob, though not without the Chief Constable having to appease them by pardoning those condemned to be flogged in the earlier incident. This impunity, however, incited the mob, egged on by the Archdeacon, and on July 6, to cries of "death to the Jews", they entered the ruined Jewsih quarter again. This time the mob did not stop at plunder, but went looking for the Jews with knives and daggers, pursuing them like beasts through the Jewish quarter's narrow streets.

This juderia had only two gates, one on Mateos Gago and the other, the Puerta de la Carne (Meat Gate) in the field. The mob rushed through both gates simultaenously, to prevent the unhappy Jews from leaving. Men, women and children had their throats slit without mercy, in their own homes, and in the synagogues. The massacre lasted an entire day and cost the lives of a huge number of people, 4000 souls.

The few survivors, who had fled Seville after the first attacks, learned the atrocious news, and went to the Regency to ask for protection and guarantees. The Regency couldn't promise much in the way of security, as the king at the time was only 11 years old and authority was divided among various people and little respected. It was precisely because of the lack of government, in fact, that this incident could happen.

After some time, and not without misgivings, some Jewish families returned to Seville, rebuilding their houses and stores. But there was never again a Jewish quarter there. Of the three synagogues, two were expropriated and converted, one in the Parish of Saint Mary of the Snows - commonly called the White - the other in Santa Cruz, but not the one standing today , rather one which was on the land which today is part of the Santa Cruz Plaza.

Some years later, when Henry III reached his majority and could rule, one of his first official acts was to bring to trial and imprison the Archdeacon of Ecija, who with his irresponsible sermons had started off the inhuman persecution and massacre of the Sevillian Jews in 1391. The chronicler Gil Gonzalez Davila wrote these severe words: "And so the king punished the Archdeacon, for no one should incite the people under pretence of piety". The king also imposed a fine on Seville and its City Hall, so high that it could not be paid, and for 10 years the municipality of Seville continued to hoard gold to pay it off, as we can see in the accounts of the Libro Mayorazgo in the city archive. The Sevillian Jews began to recover from the extermintion. The judería, which had had more than 5000 inhabitants, was reduced to a few dozen, who could barely muster the numbers needed for a synagogue, the one now converted to the church of Saint Bartholomew, built after the massacre. The diminution of the Jewish quarter was so marked that by the end of the 15th century practically no Jews remained in Seville, and for this reason the decree of exulsion of 1492 affected Seville much less than other cities of the kingdom. Almost no one was expelled from Seville, as there were practically no Jews left there.

At that time, the judería was comprised of the present-day neighbourhoods of Santa María la Blanca, Santa Cruz and San Bartolomé, and was separated from the rest of the city by a wall which ran down from the beginning of Count Ibarra Street, going along the Merchants' Plaza, to the city wall. So the Jewish quarter was walled in, on one side by the Alcazar wall, an alley of Aqua Arriba. On the other side, by the wall of Count Ibarra Street; below, by the city wall which came to the Puerta de Carmona, Puerta de la Carne, to hook up with the Alcazar. And, going up, another wall from Santa Marta to the Alcazar and along Mateos Gago St. to Count Ibarra St.

"Tradiciones y leyendas Sevillanas" José María de Mena. Plaza & Janes Editores