The future Jewish Museum in Lisbon
Lisbon once had two Jewish quarters, the most recent one in Alfama, dating back to the 13th century. The first one was found downtown, around the site of today’s St. Nicholas Church. In this "new" Jewish quarter there’s still a “Rua da Judiaria” ("Jewry Street") and that’s where the synagogue, built in 1373, once stood. Some doors are still marked with a Star of David, and you may still see part of the city’s medieval wall and gothic windows. Not far from this street, in Largo de São Miguel, there was to be a Jewish Museum, recalling the Jewish past of the neighborhood, but a memorial will be erected on the site instead. The museum’s location was changed, and it will be in the Belém district, close to the Belém Tower.
Scheduled to open in 2024, its exhibits will include pieces and images of Jewish culture donated by the local community, and will remember the history and contributions of the Jewish community to Lisbon and Portugal. It will focus on five key periods – the Jews under the Roman, Visigothic and Moorish territory that is now Portugal; the age of peaceful coexistence with Christians in the new kingdom of Portugal from the 12th to the 15th centuries; the age of intolerance, expulsion, forced conversion and Inquisition; the Portuguese Jew diaspora between the 16th and 18th centuries; the contemporary revival of Judaism in Portugal, in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The building, which will cover 4000 square feet, was designed by Daniel Libeskind, the Polish-American architect behind the Jewish museums in Berlin, Copenhagen and San Francisco, as well as the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa and the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site in New York City. It will be divided into five blocks, each one in the form of the Hebrew letters spelling “Tikvá” (or "Tikvah"), the museum’s name, which means “hope” in Hebrew.
Attractions Nearby
In addition to the Belém Tower, in the vicinity you’ll be able to visit the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown, the MAC/CCB Museum, the Discoveries Monument, and the Jerónimos Monastery.
