Monte Judeu is a toponym currently used in Portimão to designate a residential and rural area associated with postal code 8500-141, with local reference to Municipal Road 532 and to streets such as Praceta de Jacob, Praceta de Ester, and Rua de Abraão. This set of names reinforces, at a symbolic level, the connection of the area to biblical and Jewish memory within the contemporary urban landscape.

In the Algarve, toponyms containing the word “judeu” frequently appear in rural contexts, related to fields, hills, and paths, and are commonly read as markers of territorial memory. They preserve the remembrance of past connections to land, property, agricultural work, and landscapes of local production and circulation. Monte Judeu fits within this toponymic layer, linking the present-day map to historical Jewish and New Christian presences in the region, even when the place itself does not retain a direct material trace.

The Jewish presence in Vila Nova de Portimão is attested for the late fifteenth century and is known mainly through royal and notarial documentation, complemented for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by records and dynamics associated with the Holy Office. The judiaria already existed in 1489, with the leasing of houses in the Jewish quarter to the Jew Lezer Gaguim, and in 1490 there is a letter of pardon granted to Isaac Bodarros and Baruh Bodarros, both identified as Jews from Portimão, as well as references to Samuel Alferce, a Jew residing in Portimão, connected to contracts and confirmations of leases in the Algarve during the 1490s. The same documentary tradition indicates that the judiaria was located within the town walls and was served by its own gate, integrated into an intramural urban fabric whose reading today depends on the layout of the historic center and on sporadic evidence of structures revealed by construction works and demolitions.

The historical topography of the intramural nucleus becomes clearer when documentation mentions boundaries descending from the gate of the judiaria to the Porta das Freiras, including reference to a monturo dos judeus, a refuse dump associated with the quarter, and when the possibility is discussed that certain postigos and alignments relate to former gates between the Porta de São João and the area of the parish church. These data do not preserve an identifiable medieval synagogue building, but they do establish the existence of a quarter, a gate, and an urban management framework that distinguished the Jewish area within the fifteenth-century town.

The institutional rupture occurred with the edict of 1496 and the forced conversions, after which Jewish presence is read primarily through the world of the New Christians. In the sixteenth century, Portimão emerges as a decisive point in the regional inquisitorial chronology. In December 1558, a New Christian woman from Vila Nova de Portimão, Grácia Mendes, appeared before the vicar-general of the Algarve to confess Judaizing practices and denounce others, an episode associated with the beginning of the first entry of the Inquisition into the Algarve. Repression intensified in the following decades, and the scale of local impact is underscored by a recent synthesis: between 1584 and 1604, Portimão accounted for about 60 percent of those condemned in the Algarve for Judaism, a total of 99 people, a strong indicator of the town’s relative weight in persecution and in the New Christian networks of the region.

Among the figures associated with the historical projection of Portimão in the Sephardic diaspora, João Pinto Delgado (1580–1653) stands out. Born in Vila Nova de Portimão, he became a figure of crypto-Jewish poetry and later a member of the Sephardic milieu in Amsterdam, where he is identified as Moshe Pinto Delgado and took part in communal institutions. His trajectory provides a concrete example of how New Christian families from the Algarve connected with Atlantic and northern European centers, in a movement in which mobility, commerce, inquisitorial surveillance, and the reconstitution of identity went hand in hand.

From the perspective of contemporary memory, there is journalistic reference to a street in the old part of Portimão where a judiaria is thought to have existed, an evocation that survives as urban memory even without stable toponymic confirmation in current use. What remains, therefore, is a combination of ancient urban structure, vestiges of walls and gates discussed by local historiography, and documentation that fixes people, statuses, and places, with the Inquisition marking the moment of greatest social destruction through arrests, condemnations, and forced displacements.

In the nineteenth century, organized Jewish return in the Algarve is clearly documented mainly in Faro, with a community formed by Jews coming from Gibraltar and North Africa, leaving a strong material testimony in the Jewish Cemetery of Faro, among other traces. For Portimão, in the syntheses consulted on the town between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and on the regional nineteenth-century return, there does not appear to have been a structured communal reestablishment with the same institutional visibility recognized in Faro, although this does not exclude individual presences and circulation within the Algarve economy of the period.

The medieval Jewish quarter of Faro was located inside the walled nucleus now known as Vila Adentro, in an urban sector later absorbed by the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Assunção. Its importance rests above all on the documentary prominence of Faro’s Jewish community and on the activity of Samuel Gacon, whose workshop in Faro produced, in 1487, the Pentateuch generally recognized as the first known book printed in Portugal. The quarter therefore belongs not only to the urban history of Algarve Jewry but also to the early history of Hebrew printing in Portugal.

The site does not survive as a visibly Jewish architectural ensemble. Royal documentation still referred in 1496 to the revenues of the “new and old service” of the judiaria of Faro, but after the forced conversion and expulsion policies at the end of the fifteenth century the quarter lost its communal function. From 1519 onward, the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Assunção was built over this area, and the present Municipal Museum marks the clearest surviving landmark through which the former judiaria can now be approached. Its significance is therefore mainly documentary, urban, and memorial, rather than architectural.

The Jewish presence in Alcoutim during the Middle Ages must be understood within the broader framework of the settlement of eastern Algarve after the definitive Christian conquest of the territory, completed in the mid-13th century. As a border town and a point of fluvial control on the Lower Guadiana, Alcoutim played a strategic role in royal administration, in the circulation of people and goods, and in the regulation of relations with Castilian territory. Within this context, the Jewish presence appears as structural and functional rather than incidental.

The existence of a Jewish quarter in Alcoutim is attested by fiscal and administrative documentation, namely references to rents and taxes associated with the local Jewish community. In medieval Portugal, the explicit mention of a “judiaria” does not correspond to a generic or symbolic designation, but to a precise legal reality: a group of Jewish residents officially recognized by the authorities, subject to specific taxation and integrated into the economic system of the kingdom. These documentary references therefore confirm the institutional existence of an organized Jewish community in Alcoutim, albeit of small size.

From an urban perspective, the exact location of the Jewish quarter remains unknown. In small towns such as Alcoutim, Jewish quarters did not necessarily take on an extensive or formally defined layout and could correspond to a limited group of houses located near circulation routes, areas of economic activity, or zones under closer administrative control. The absence of identified material remains to date does not invalidate its existence, but rather reflects later urban transformations and the fragility of local documentary preservation.

The importance of Alcoutim as a frontier contact zone becomes particularly significant at the end of the 15th century. Following the expulsion of the Jews from Castile in 1492, eastern Algarve became one of the entry routes into Portugal for Jewish populations coming from Castilian territory. Historical sources refer to the presence of Castilian Jews who entered through this region and were baptized in Alcoutim, a fact that indicates not only human circulation but also the prior existence of administrative and social mechanisms capable of managing this population.

The Jewish quarter of Alcoutim thus represents a case of Jewish presence documented primarily through administrative and fiscal records, typical of peripheral and frontier towns. It is a case in which historical existence is confirmed by academic research, even though its urban and archaeological materiality has yet to be identified, leaving room for future investigation, both in archival research and in the study of the built environment and historical topography of the town.

Judeu Morto is listed in postal and locality records as a place in the municipality of Castro Marim, in the district of Faro. The name is usually explained through oral tradition connected to the nearby microtoponym Fonte do Judeu Morto. According to a legend recorded by Lendarium (CEAO), a man known locally as “the Jew” once fell into a well and drowned, and the place-name is said to derive from that event.

Fonte do Judeu Morto is a small settlement identified in the surroundings of Rio Seco, within the municipality of Castro Marim. The name is recorded in administrative documentation, including official publications related to municipal planning instruments such as the Municipal Master Plan. The traditional explanation for the toponym is preserved in local memory. According to a legend collected by the Centro de Estudos Ataíde Oliveira and recorded in the Lendarium, there once lived, “in ancient times”, a man known as “the Jew” who, while attempting to jump over a well, fell in and drowned, and it is from this event that the name “Fonte do Judeu Morto” is said to have originated.

The town of Castro Marim, located on the right bank of the mouth of the Guadiana River, emerges in the Middle Ages as a frontier fortress of great strategic importance. The castle dominates the junction between the river, maritime routes, and the border line with Ayamonte. In 1277, King Afonso III granted the town a charter, with privileges intended to attract settlers and consolidate the defense of the territory. From that point onward, the urban nucleus developed within the walls of the so-called “old castle.”

At the beginning of the 14th century, the centrality of Castro Marim was further reinforced by the installation there of the first headquarters of the Order of Christ, created in 1319 following the extinction of the Order of the Temple. The order remained based in the castle until the mid-14th century, when its headquarters were transferred to Tomar, but this period was sufficient to consolidate the town as a frontier stronghold and a point of articulation between the Algarve, the border, and the Atlantic.

It is within this context that documentation from the 15th and 16th centuries, as gathered in recent syntheses, notes the existence of a Jewish quarter in Castro Marim, located behind the castle. The description points to a small Jewish neighborhood adjoining the fortified enclosure, in a peripheral position but protected by the walls, in accordance with patterns observed in other frontier towns. The same compilations, based on royal and local sources, state that in 1507, at a time when Jews were already subject to the general laws of the kingdom, the synagogue of Castro Marim was closed, and that around 1509, immediately before the drafting of the Tombo of the Commandery of the Order of Christ, the Jewish quarter had already ceased to exist as an active neighborhood.

The Manueline New Charter of 1504 and the Tombo of the Commandery of 1509, studied by Hugo Cavaco, show a town undergoing full administrative and patrimonial reorganization at the beginning of the 16th century. Although these instruments do not preserve detailed descriptions of the former Jewish quarter, the fact that the neighborhood no longer appears as a distinct unit confirms the rapid disappearance of the Jewish communal structure following the measures enacted by King Manuel I. In parallel, the Book of Fortresses by Duarte de Armas, produced in 1509–1510 by royal order, takes Castro Marim as the starting point for the survey of frontier castles, depicting from two perspectives the housing clustered between the castle and the hillside, where the former Jewish area was located.

Today, the medieval Jewish quarter of Castro Marim is not recognizable through specific toponyms or buildings identified as a synagogue. What remains is the topography of the castle and the intramural nucleus, as preserved in the urban layout and historical reconstructions, and an indirect memory transmitted through late medieval documentation and modern studies that consistently point to the existence of a small Jewish neighborhood adjoining the castle, active until the early 16th century. For the purposes of heritage mapping, the former Jewish quarter of Castro Marim thus corresponds to the intramural sector located on the rear slope of the castle, associated with the first headquarters of the Order of Christ and with the defensive and circulation network that structured this frontier town.

Jewish presence in Tavira is documented from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries onward, primarily through rents, royal charters, and Jewish tax registers preserved in the National Archives of Torre do Tombo. These sources confirm that Tavira was one of the main Algarvian towns with an organized Jewish community, integrated into the fiscal system of the kingdom and subject to the specific obligations defined by royal legislation for the judiarias. The Charter of Tavira, confirmed by King Afonso III and later by King Dinis and King Afonso IV, mentions Jewish residents subject to the same general taxes as Christians, while also required to pay taxes specific to Jewish communities, as set out in the Afonsine Ordinances. These norms established how the judiarias were to function, the degree of autonomy they possessed, and how they were to be integrated within the medieval urban fabric.

The rents and Jewish tax registers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, essential documents for the fiscal history of the kingdom, include Tavira among the localities with taxable Jewish households. It is in these records that names such as Judas Abenamram and Abraão Abenamram appear, associated with commercial activities linked to the port, as well as Jacob Aboab and Isaac Negro, who recur repeatedly as taxpayers of the town. The title Mestre Samuel, a physician or surgeon active in Tavira, reveals the presence of qualified professionals within the community, while names such as Mosse Ben Luali, Joseph Melamed, and David Refofaço reflect a diversity of occupations, from merchants to specialized artisans, supporting the local economy. The recurrence of these names across different years indicates communal continuity and sustained participation in Tavira’s economic life, at a time when the town was a dynamic port center in the medieval Algarve.

Royal chanceries from the reigns of Afonso V and João II further reinforce Jewish presence in the city, mentioning Jews involved in the collection of rents, urban provisioning, and port transactions. Although brief, these documents attest that the Jews of Tavira were regarded as reliable economic agents, recognized by royal administration and integrated into the fiscal and commercial functioning of the city.

The location of the judiaria emerges from the intersection of this documentation with urban studies by Maria José Ferro Tavares, Elvira Mea, and other scholars of medieval Algarvian history. The Jewish quarter was situated within the intramural nucleus, in the area corresponding to present-day Rua Marquês da Fronteira, on the slope of the castle. This zone, inhabited since the Islamic period and densely occupied after the Christian reconquest, displays the typical pattern of Portuguese judiarias: narrow streets, contiguous houses, and proximity to the administrative center. After 1497, when the community was dissolved through forced conversions, several former Jewish properties appear redistributed to New Christians bearing surnames such as Rodrigues, Álvares, Henriques, and Nunes, further reinforcing the spatial identification of the former judiaria.

Taken together, the charters, rents, tax registers, chanceries, and post-conversion records allow for the reconstruction of a picture of a small yet economically significant community, aligned with the maritime and commercial dynamics of medieval Tavira. The judiaria disappeared physically as an autonomous unit after 1497, but the preserved documentation left a clear trace of those who lived there and contributed to the city’s development. Today, the Judiaria of Tavira remains identifiable not through architectural remains, but through the coherence of medieval documents, which make it possible to link the present-day topography to the concrete lives of the Jews who inhabited this urban sector for more than two centuries.

The small locality called Sinagoga, situated in the parish of Santo Estêvão, in the municipality of Tavira, preserves in its name a probable legacy of the former Jewish presence in the region. Although no physical remains of a synagogue or Jewish buildings exist there today, the place-name, together with nearby toponyms such as Malhada do Judeu, suggests that Jews or New Christians may have lived there and maintained religious traditions, perhaps even clandestinely, after the forced conversions of the fifteenth century. It is plausible to consider that, since Jews were also active in rural contexts, these lands may have belonged to Jewish families who established a small synagogue or discreet place of worship there, even if no material evidence has survived. The use of the term “Sinagoga”, specific to Jewish worship, and the oral preservation of the word “Esnoga” among older residents reinforce the hypothesis that the memory of Jewish practices remained alive in this rural area, making the toponym a symbolic testimony to the historical diversity of the Algarve.

The Judiaria of Sintra is identified today through the Beco da Judiaria in the historic center, a surviving micro-toponym that preserves the memory of the town’s medieval Jewish quarter. Municipal historical synthesis states that, from the early municipal phase of Sintra, a Sephardic community existed in the town with its own synagogue and quarter; another official municipal text notes that the judiaria lay at the edge of the vila and that its synagogue remained documented until 1503.

The municipal medieval route locates the former gates of the quarter and the synagogue at the entrance to today’s Beco da Judiaria, specifically identifying the synagogue as having stood at the third building on the left after entering the lane. Archival records from 1449 and 1463 further anchor Jewish presence within the judiaria and at its entrance, while a 1503 record still refers to property donated to the synagogue of Sintra. The site should therefore be read less as a fully preserved quarter in material form than as a historically documented urban trace, preserved in street alignment, toponymy, and archival memory.