Santa Cruz, Seville

Historia

Santa Cruz, is the primary tourist neighborhood of Seville, Spain, and the former Jewish quarter of the medieval city. Santa Cruz is bordered by the Jardines de Murillo, the Real Alcázar, Calle Mateos Gago, and Calle Santa María La Blanca/San José. The neighborhood is the location of many of Seville's oldest churches and is home to the Cathedral of Seville, including the converted minaret of the old Moorish mosque Giralda.HistorySanta Cruz was Seville's old judería : when Ferdinand III of Castile conquered the city from Muslim rule, he concentrated the city's Jewish population—second in the Iberian Peninsula only to that of Toledo—in this single neighborhood.After the Alhambra Decree of 1492 expelled the Jews from Spain, the neighborhood went downhill. In the 18th century, the neighborhood underwent a major process of urban renewal, including the conversion of a former synagogue into the current Church of Saint Bartholomew.Just outside the neighborhood is the Iglesia de Santa María de las Nieves, better known as the Iglesia de Santa María la Blanca, a converted 14th century Mudéjar synagogue.