New permanent exhibition in Barcelona’s Cathedral uncovers the Jewish history of the city

Barcelona’s  Cathedral hosted the presentation of the permanent exhibition “Discovering Jewish memory in Barcelona Cathedral”, which provides access to historical documents on the medieval Jewish community of Barcelona.

Among the civil authorities present at the opening ceremony were the Director General of Cultural Heritage of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Elsa Ibar, and the Commissioner for Intercultural Dialogue and Religious Pluralism of Barcelona City Council, Khalid Ghali.

Margarita Bofarull, Delegate for Cultural Heritage of the Archbishopric of Barcelona, was present on behalf of the Archbishop of Barcelona.

Barcelona Cathedral houses more than 40,000 medieval parchments, which contain thousands of references to the city’s Jewish community. This volume of medieval archival documentation is quite unique.

From now on, an important selection of this collection will be open to the public thanks to the collaboration of the Jewish cultural platform Mozaika and the Cathedral, which marks a historic milestone, especially in Barcelona, but also in Europe.

The president of Mozaika, Eva Fortes, said that “this is a historic event in the relation between Jews and Christians in Catalonia for 700 years, and even on a European level, since a collaboration between two institutions of this type for such a profound project is unprecedented”.

For her part, the principal researcher and curator of the exhibition, Clara Jáuregui, stressed that this exhibition represents “a great step forward for Catalan Jewish heritage, as it opens up to the public a wealth of knowledge about medieval Jewish life that was previously only accessible at an academic level”.

On behalf of Barcelona Cathedral, the Dean of the Chapter, Josep Ramon Pérez, presided over the event, accompanied by the Director of the Chapter Archive, Robert Baró, who greeted the guests who attended in the Sala de la Merced of the Barcelona Cathedral.

The midday event marks the start of a programme of guided tours of the exhibition to be carried out by Mozaika, in agreement with the cathedral.

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