El micvé de la darrera sinagoga medieval de Girona
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In 1415, Girona’s Jewish community was confined to an enclosure physically
separated from the rest of the city by a wall. It was in that scaled-down Jewish quarter that the aljama (a Spanish term of Arabic origin used in old official documents
to designate self-governing communities of Moors and Jews living under
Spanish rule) established Girona’s third and last synagogue. Archive documents
show that it stood on part of what is now the site of the Bonastruc ça Porta Centre.
In the interests of having a more comprehensive and accurate record of the Jewish
community’s physical spaces and heritage, Girona City Council has organised various
archaeological excavations at the spot in question. The most recent digs, which
took place in 2014 and 2015, unearthed several structures associated with a mikveh
(ritual bath). Drawing on all the surviving documentary evidence, we describe how
those structures must have been and trace their history over the 15th century