Jewish Barcelona: A History Tour with Context

Barcelona’s Jewish community has a rich but tragic history. On this walking tour produced by historian and Context Travel expert, Dr. Cornel-Peter Rodenbusch, you’ll trace 700 years of Jewish life in Barcelona, from early prosperity to the community’s violent destruction.

The tour starts at Portal de l’Angel, where Jewish merchants once entered the city. You’ll stroll through narrow medieval alleys that still bear Hebrew inscriptions and architectural traces of synagogues, ritual baths, and Jewish homes. Dr. Rodenbusch will tell you how Barcelona’s Jewish community, at just 15% of the population, formed one of medieval Europe’s most significant Jewish centers.

You’ll learn how Jewish physicians treated Christian patients, how trilingual inscriptions reflect the early medieval city’s cosmopolitan nature, and how the 1263 Barcelona Disputation between faiths took place in the very halls you’ll visit. You’ll pass active archaeological sites, preserved synagogue remains, and buildings constructed on former Jewish properties. As you make your way to the Cathedral of Barcelona, where the tour ends, you’ll hear about daily life, scholarly achievements, and the cultural integration of Barcelona’s Jews known as the Katalanim - the Catalan speaking jews.

On this 90-minute tour, you’ll have a chance to:

• Peer through the floor grating at Caelum café to see Europe’s oldest preserved mikvah (ritual bath)
• Visit the MUHBA El Call history museum in a medieval Jewish home, complete with the original mezuzah doorpost marking still visible at the entrance
• Pass by the remains of Barcelona’s main synagogue, where the community celebrated festivals and conducted business for over 200 years
• Learn about Rabbi Salomó ben Adret, ”The Rabbi of Spain,” who influenced Jewish law across Europe
• Walk through Plaça de Sant Jaume, where Catalonia’s government building stands on the exact site of a former Synagogue
• Pop into Mercat de la Boqueria, an indoor market on La Rambla, where you can purchase some traditional Spanish fare
• Wind through Call Mayor and Call Menor (the major and minor Jewish quarters) and spot Lápida Judia (Hebrew tombstone fragments) embedded in palace walls

By the end of this tour, you’ll have experienced Barcelona’s medieval Jewish quarter through the eyes of a scholar who has dedicated his career to preserving this history.