Museums and Palaces

Isaac Cardoso Jewish Culture Interpretation Centre

A contemporary architecture building, the Isaac Cardoso Jewish Culture Interpretation Centre is located in the old Trancoso Jewish quarter and pays tribute to the Jewish doctor who was born in the town in the early 17th century. Cardoso became Head Physician of the Court of Madrid and eventually took refuge in Verona, Italy, due to religious persecution.

This centre's mission is to preserve the Jewish legacy of the region and it is a place for study, reflection and knowledge of the Hebrew presence in this city. It includes temporary exhibition rooms, a memorial to the victims of the Inquisition, with the 515 names of the prisoners of Trancoso, and a synagogue, called Beit Mayim Hayim - Casa das Águas Vivas (Live Water House).

The Synagogue, which has its most obvious inspiration in the Tomar Synagogue, is all made of wood, contrasting with all the rest of the building in granite. As with the stylisation of the four columns, representing the Matriarchs of Israel, all the cladding of the walls points us towards the ceiling where a weave built with light boxes represents the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

In 2013, the Isaac Cardoso Jewish Culture Interpretation Centre received a Sefer Torah (Roll of the Torah or Law), which thus returned to Trancoso more than 500 years after the expulsion of the Jews decreed by King Manuel I of Portugal in 1496, and subsequent forced conversion by the Inquisition that decimated the Trancoso Jewish community at the time.