The memory of the New Christians of Fundão is strongly documented in inquisitorial records. Today, it is not preserved through one known house or visible monument, but through trials, names, family networks, shops, confiscated goods and sentences.

Historical research on Fundão identifies dozens of proceedings against people born or living in the town and accused of “Judaism”. The recorded numbers are significant: 33 processes in the sixteenth century, 87 in the seventeenth century and 176 in the eighteenth century.

New Christian Networks in Fundão

The records do not concern only one family. They reveal wider New Christian networks in Fundão, including names such as Pessoa Tavares, Cunha, Nunes, Henriques, Cunha Falcão, Rodrigues, Roiz Morão and Mendes.

These names appear through marriages, denunciations, kinship, trade and inquisitorial testimony. Together, they show that persecution reached an urban network, not one isolated household.

Sancho Pessoa da Cunha

One of the best documented cases is Sancho Pessoa da Cunha. He was a New Christian merchant connected to Fundão and to the cloth trade. He had a shop of panos and baetas in the town, selling woollen fabrics in a region where textile production and commerce were central to local life.

Sancho was arrested by the Inquisition of Coimbra on 2 November 1704. During the process, his goods were inventoried. He declared that he had no other real property except his shop of panos and baetas in Fundão, valued at around 230,000 réis.

His case was not only about belief. It also shows how the Inquisition entered family life, commercial life and property. Accusations of Judaism could lead to imprisonment, interrogation, confiscation of goods and public punishment.

Inquisition and Family Memory

Sancho Pessoa da Cunha was condemned to perpetual prison and penitential habit, with confiscation of his property. His family history continued to be marked by the Holy Office. In later records, members of the same family network appear again under inquisitorial suspicion.

The exact street of Sancho’s shop is not known from the available study. This memory is therefore best connected to the historic centre of Fundão, where commercial life, New Christian family networks and inquisitorial persecution crossed each other.