The Synagogue of El Tránsito (Spanish: Sinagoga del Tránsito), also known as the Synagogue of Samuel ha-Levi or Halevi, is a former Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at on Calle Samuel Levi, in the historic old city of Toledo, in the province of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Designed by master mason Don Meir (Mayr) Abdeil, it was built in 1357 in the Mudéjar or Moorish style as an annex of the palace of Samuel HaLevi, treasurer to King Peter of Castile. The synagogue is located in the former Jewish quarter of the city between the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes and the Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca. It is one of three preserved synagogues constructed by Jews under the rule of the Christian Kingdom of Castile. The building was converted to a Catholic church after the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. It was briefly used as military barracks during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s. It became a Sephardic Jewish museum in 1910, formally known today as the Sephardic Museum. The building has been added to the list of monuments of Spanish Cultural Heritage (Spanish: Bien de Interés Cultural). It is also known for its rich stucco decoration, Mudéjar style, and women's gallery.
History
Synagogue
The synagogue was built around 1357, under the patronage of Samuel HaLevi, who was an Abulafia. His family had served the ruling Castilian House of Burgundy for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholars such as Meir and Todros ben Joseph Abulafia. Another Todros Abulafia,Todros ben Judah Halevi Abulafia, was one of the last poets to write in the Arab-influenced style favored by Jewish poets in twelfth and thirteenth-century Spain. Located within Toledo's medieval Jewish quarter, the synagogue is connected to Samuel Abulafia's house by a gate and was intended as a private house of worship. It also served as a center for Jewish religious education or yeshiva. Some scholars suggest that Peter of Castile assented to the synagogue's construction as a token of appreciation for Samuel’s service as counselor and treasurer to the king. Peter may also have allowed it to compensate the Jews of Toledo for the persecution of Jews during the Black Death in 1348. Throughout the 14th century, Spanish Regional Councils had sparked a prohibition on constructing synagogues. As to why the construction of this synagogue would have been allowed remains debated, but scholars reason that it was due to Samuel's relationship with King Peter of Castile, or the fact that it was a private home. It may also be that limitations did not apply in Castile to synagogues built in private houses, which was a common way to pass the ban on creating new synagogues in both Christian and Muslim areas. Construction would often be allowed after payment of a fee or bribe. More recent evidence also suggests that the synagogue was built over an older synagogue, thus forming a loophole in the ban since this was perhaps not viewed as a new construction.
Samuel eventually fell out of favor with the king. He was arrested in December 1360 on corruption charges, imprisoned in Seville, and tortured to death. During the anti-Jewish Massacre of 1391, the Jewish quarter of Toledo was attacked, but the synagogue was saved.
Church After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, the synagogue was converted to a church. It was given to the Order of Calatrava by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. The Order is said to have converted the building into a church serving a priory dedicated to Saint Benedict. It was from its time as a church that the building acquired the name "El Tránsito", which refers to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In the 17th century the church's name changed to Nuestra Señora del Tránsito: the name derives from a painting by Juan Correa de Vivar housed there which depicted the Transit of the Virgin.
Military barracks The synagogue was used as military headquarters during the Napoleonic Wars.
National monument and museum In 1877 the building became a national monument. The transformation of the building into the Sephardi Museum, as it is now called, started around 1910. It was initiated by the Vega-Inclan Foundation. In 1964, a royal decree established the Museo Sefardi, located in the Synagogue of Samuel ha-Levi. Four years later, in 1968, it was renamed the National Museum for Hispanic-Hebraic Art. The building, which is in a good state of conservation, remains a museum.
Restorations After its conversion to a parish church and use as a barracks, the building underwent several periods of restoration. The first phase began in 1879 with the cleaning and repair of the Torah ark, the restoration of at least fourteen lattices, and the removal of various Hebrew inscriptions. In 1884, Arturo Mélida y Alinari replaced Francisco Isidori as the head architect of the project, focusing mainly on the roof, façade, and reinforcements. The building fell back into disrepair before it became part of the El Greco Museum in 1911, when a new large-scale phase of restorations began. Scaffolding that had been put up in previous decades and partitions from the women's gallery were removed. The wooden church choir and portions of the interior were restored. Adding a library to the lower part of the gallery, which has since become an important center for Hebrew studies, entailed the demolition of large portions of the façade.
Architecture
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