The Judiaria Nova de Viseu took shape in the early fifteenth century, when the Jewish quarter moved from the older area near the cathedral and the Torre dos Sinos to a nearby street farther from the perimeter of the Sé.

The earlier Rua da Judiaria, today Rua da Senhora da Boa Morte, had stood very close to the cathedral. Between 1415 and 1418, the Jewish quarter was gradually displaced to a contiguous and still central area, located between the Praça and Rua das Tendas. This new area corresponds to the present Rua da Senhora da Piedade.

The formation of the Judiaria Nova de Viseu

The documents do not give a single explicit reason for the move. Historical studies connect it to the growth of the Jewish community, the need for a larger organized space, and the pressure created by the proximity of the older judiaria to the cathedral and to properties held by the cathedral chapter.

The move marked a new phase in the organization of Jewish life in Viseu. The earlier street became known as Rua da Judiaria Velha, while the new area developed as the Judiaria Nova. The synagogue was also transferred to this new quarter. Its documented location should therefore be understood within the Judiaria Nova itself, corresponding today to Rua da Senhora da Piedade. The surviving evidence does not identify a precise building or plot.

Houses, leases and Jewish residents

During the fifteenth century, the documentation records houses, leases and property relations involving Jewish residents and the cathedral chapter. The Judiaria Nova was therefore not an isolated edge of the city. It formed part of the dense urban fabric around the Praça, Rua das Tendas and Rua da Triparia.

Names preserved in the documentation include Samuel Navarro, Aviziboa and Salomão Navarro, connected to houses in the judiaria. These references show Jewish family presence, property transmission and daily residence inside the new quarter.

At the same time, Jewish residence in Viseu was not limited to the Judiaria Nova. The records also place Jews in nearby commercial streets and in other parts of the city, showing a community integrated into the economic life of fifteenth-century Viseu.

Segregation and the end of the Judiaria Nova

From the middle of the fifteenth century onward, the separation between the Jewish quarter and the Christian city became sharper. By 1455, the street of the Judiaria was closed with doors at its ends. In 1468, representatives of Viseu complained that Jewish houses had doors and windows opening toward Christian properties. King Afonso V then ordered those openings to be closed.

After the forced conversion of the Jews in Portugal, the name of the street changed. From 1498, the former Rua da Judiaria began to appear as Rua Nova. In 1499, a lease from the cathedral chapter still preserved the older memory of the place, referring to houses in Rua Nova that had previously belonged to the Judiaria. The Judiaria Nova de Viseu remained in the record through this change of name, ownership and identity.