Converso Houses in the 16th Century in the Former Jewish Quarter of Seville

Abstract

Vital scenarios in the old Jewish quarter of Seville (Spain) in the 16th Century are analyzed. The objectives of this paper are first, to gather up a brief history of the property of some houses of Conversos (Jews who converted to Christianity in the face of the Inquisition); secondly, to study their layout and their construction relating them to emotions in architecture in a transversal way; thirdly, to make hypothetical plans and elevations (including some digital reconstructions); and, finally, to report their current state of preservation. For these purposes, documents have been consulted in Sevillian archives. To analyze these buildings, it was essential to consult the little-known texts called apeos, which were official documents drawn up by the master builders (alarifes) that the owners requested in order to know the conservation of the buildings. An innovative methodology of translating written descriptions into graphics has been developed. Likewise, among the characteristic spaces of the Sevillian houses, more singular ones, such as the reception courtyards, the main rooms, and the women’s quarters, have been thoroughly analyzed. The alteration of the entrance of one of the houses due to the historical and emotional context and the importance of the women’s quarters (as a religious and vital refuge) are also highlighted.

1. Introduction

1.1. Historical Context

Their synagogues, their aljamas (buildings for the worship in Judaism and places of study and interpretation of the scriptures), their houses, their belongings, their relatives, and their daily lives were left behind by the Jews upon being expelled from Castile and Aragon (Spain) in 1492 [1]. In exchange for survival, those who converted (“Conversos”) renounced their identity and a religious and spiritual legacy spanning centuries [2,3]. These new Christians joined the large group of converts, who, since the 14th Century and during the 15th, had been the object of bloody assaults in their Jewish quarters [4].

From a religious point of view, they decided to adopt a new faith. As Caro Baroja asserts [5] (vol. 1, p. 128), they believed with naive optimism that, for some time, it would be possible for them to “lead a double life in the field of religiosity.” Inside the house, they would continue to practice the faith of their ancestors and outside, the new religion they had been forced to believe [6]. The house had become an extension of the Jew’s own soul, his own most intimate spiritual refuge [7]. Sometimes, it was the extension of the disappeared synagogue -the place where their most ancient culture was projected. The house, with its walls, had become a fortress, alien to the outside. The emotions of those who lived in these houses were projected onto them.

Thus, this paper analyzes the daily life scenarios of six Converso families who lived in the old Jewish quarter of Seville (Spain) in the 16th Century (Figure 1). All of them having a historical and kinship link with families of Conversos after the pogrom of 1391 (a massacre, accompanied by looting, carried out by an enraged crowd against a community, especially against the Jews) or the expulsion from Seville in 1486, should be noted.

1.2. State of Art

Other Jewish quarters have been studied, such as the ones in Córdoba [8], Toledo [9], Barcelona [10], Segovia [11], Cáceres [12], and Tetuán [13]. Most of the research studies are from a historical point of view and do not include an architectural analysis or drawings of the buildings. The exception could be the case of Toledo: Passini has performed thorough research based on historical documents, resulting in an urban and architectural analysis. He based his findings on the actual conservation of the buildings [14]. His method used the current houses to look for the historical documents that described a building in order to eventually draw its 15th Century plans. Seville’s documents have also been studied by historians and some architects, and archeologists, but none of them includes drawings or a specific study of the buildings where Jews lived [15].

Regarding the methodology, some authors, like Passini, have used historical documents as we did, such as Orihuela in Granada and Málaga [16,17]. In our case, this presented research is the logical continuation of the extensive work previously published by the author. Our methodology is also based on historical documents, but in contrast to Passini, the historical texts are used to draw and locate the buildings, after which the actual building is found and studied. The drawings are possible because of the richness of the descriptions contributed by some specific documents located in Sevillian archives. This made Seville a unique case of study.

The historical documents have been used in order to make an urban and architectural analysis of the city and of every kind of functional type [18,19,20]. The first time that this novel methodology was developed was in 2012 in order to analyze one neighborhood of 16th Century Seville [21]. A database with individual files containing the information provided by the historical texts was made. After the analysis, hypothetical plans of the houses were drawn up, and their locations were placed over an urban map of Seville (Figure 2).

The innovation in this methodology resides in the translation from historical descriptions to CAD elevations and BIM recreations of the buildings, besides their historical background and actual conservation. The architectural drawings should be understood as a way to conduct heritage preservation. Some researchers have used architectural elevations as a way to study monumental buildings, such as cathedrals, great churches, and palaces. However, this type of drawing for domestic architecture is essential [22]; very few focus their efforts on residential buildings [23,24]. In our opinion, houses are crucial in the historical urban analysis of a city [25]: from the elements, the whole can be obtained.

2. Objectives and Methodology: Cases of Study

This research is the continuation of the extensive work previously published by the author. It focuses, especially, on studying material aspects, such as the domestic architecture of the Jewish quarter.

2.1. Objectives

The objectives of this paper are first, to gather up a brief history of the property of Converso houses; secondly, to study their layout and their construction relating them to emotions in architecture in a transversal way; thirdly, to make hypothetical plans and elevations (including some reconstructions); and, finally, to report their current state of conservation.

2.2. Methodology

Six houses were chosen among all those documented to achieve these goals. According to each objective, an adequate method has been used. Consulting Sevillian archives (Archive of the Cathedral of Seville and Archive of Diputación Provincial of Seville) was needed to know the history of ownership of a house and its layout. Both the method for collecting information on the ownership of the houses and the one used to draw them are based on the collection of historical texts, especially the testaments, protocols, and surveys of houses from ecclesiastical and charitable institutions (hospitals). Some little-known documents called apeos have been used. They were official documents drawn up by the master builders (alarifes) that the owners requested in order to know the conservation of the buildings.

The texts were transcribed and then entered into a database. After the analysis of the information, the surfaces of the spaces and their totality were calculated. In addition, the uses of these spaces and their constructive characteristics were studied. Lastly, relationships were established with the type of 16th Century Sevillian house, and conclusions were drawn on the use of singular spaces.

The methodology used for the drawing is based on that developed in our previous studies into other building typologies in Seville [26]. It is based on the translation from written to graphical representation [27,28]. With the reliable information provided by the written descriptive records (apeos) of the Cathedral Chapter of 1542 and 1543 (usages, relation between spaces, measures, ceilings, number of beams, and construction elements), hypotheses for elevations have been drawn, and spatial organization has been analyzed. Likewise, the plot size and the floor area of different spaces have been calculated, as well as the built-up area. Each element has been analyzed separately and collectively, considering both its function and construction. To draw the hypothetical elevations, a CAD program was used. The described pieces were drawn individually according to the composition of their ceilings (the width and length of the room and the calculated distance between beams offer the orientation of the pieces). Further, to recreate the spaces in three dimensions with all the architectural details, a BIM program was employed. The application of new design technology to translate the historical texts is a very innovative approach to analyzing the houses, specifically in the former Jewish quarter of Seville.

Furthermore, in order to check the conservation of these six houses, visits were made to the houses, and the Official Association of Architects of Seville archive was consulted. Additionally, digital recreations were considered necessary to present an accurate architectural analysis of those structures that had been lost.

2.3. Six Houses

As already mentioned before, we selected six of the most unique houses of Conversos among the many in the old Jewish quarter and its surroundings (Figure 3). Four of them were located in the former Hebrew streets (Cruces 1, 2, 3, and 4, in Santa Cruz), another in the neighborhood of Abades (Guzmán el Bueno house, in Santa María la Mayor), and the last in Vidrio Street (Vidrio, quarter of San Esteban). (See

Table A1. House, family that lived there, and date with documentary references.

House	Family Who Lived It	Date	Reference
Cruces 1	Francisco Téllez and Florentina Manuel	1502	Archive Cathedral of Seville ACS, MC, II, 9162, year 1502, sheet 142v.
Cruces 2	Graduate Pedro de Corral	1542	ACS, MC, II, 9163, y. 1542, s. 355r.
Cruces 3	Gonzalo de Écija	1542	ACS, MC, II, 9163, y. 1542, s. 359v.
Cruces 4	Alonso de Jaén, merchant	1511	Archive of Diputación Provincial of Seville ADPS, Cinco Llagas Hospital, books 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, 16th and 17th Centuries, protocol 138.
Guzmán el Bueno	Don Diego Fernández Marmolejo, archdeacon of Écija	1489, 1502	ACS, MC, II, b. 9162, y. 1502, ss. 129v, 130r and 138v.
Vidrio	Juan Ruiz de Sevilla, Jewish, public notary of las alzadas	1481	ADPS, H. Cinco Llagas, b. 4, p. 19.

in Appendix A). For each one, a brief history of ownership and surfaces was collected by consulting the historical archives of Seville and some specific documents. Cruces 1, 2, and 3 houses were chosen to draw the hypothetical elevations and virtual recreations. To relate the architecture of the residential buildings to the emotions of 16th Century converts and Sevillian society, Cruces 1 and Guzman el Bueno were used. Further, Guzmán el Bueno, Cruces 4, and Vidrio were selected because of their current conservation and their archeological value. (Figure 4). All of them were used to achieve every objective.

3. Results: Analysis of Data, Drawing, and Conservation of the Houses

The Jews in the context of the city of Seville were surrounded by an intimate halo as a consequence of the establishment of events during the Inquisition. It is not inescapable, nor is it strange, that such a sentiment persisted for several generations throughout the 16th Century among those who chose to remain in the city, as Gil [29] has highlighted. In addition to having to abandon their religious beliefs, Conversos had to hide their fears of external control over their own lives.

3.1. History of Ownership and Elevations

3.1.1. Cruces 1 House

The Cruces 1 house was at the entrance of Cruces Street, on the left-hand side [30] (section II, book 9162, year 1502, sheet 142v) (Figure 3). In 1502, the cathedral chapter leased it for life to the couple formed by Francisco Téllez and Florentina Manuel, his wife (both Conversos) [29] (vol. V, pp. 372–374), for 3560 maravedís (old Spanish currency). It was bordered on one side by the houses of Johan Mejía canon and on the other side by the houses of Alonso de Xerez, notary of the town hall [29] (vol. IV, p. 274). The houses of Johan Mejía are said to have belonged to the Jewish royal treasurer Samuel Leví in the first half of the 14th Century. A piece of Levi’s house is currently in the catalog of the Special Plan for the Protection of the Historical Complex of Seville (Sector 5 “San Bartolomé”), 5 Fabiola Street [31]. Alonso de Xerez’s house currently coincides with number 1 on the same street, protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest according to the BOE (State official newsletter) in 1983 [32].

As described in the survey of 1542, it was “in Cruces Street, in the Borceguinería to the right hand in the wall of the Jewish quarter” and had a door to the street (Figure 4). In that year, it was leased for life by the racionero (prebendary who had a ration in a cathedral or collegiate church) Antonio de Moya and bordered on one side by the houses of Fernán Peres, a merchant and on the other by the houses of the heirs of the racionero Mejía [30] (section II, book 9163, year 1542, sheet 340r).

This house had a plot area of 365 m² and a usable area of 181.15 m² on the first floor, 96.8 m² on the second floor, and 48.5 m² on the third floor (326.45 m² in total). It was not a house of large dimensions compared to other main houses in the area, as it had only three open spaces: a patio, a servicio de mujeres patio, and a pen or corral (it occupied a rear position in the houses, together with the kitchens, and usually housed the latrine, wash basins, pools, sheds, shortcuts for chickens and other poultry and fruit trees, so that they were useful for domestic subsistence) (Figure 5).

Regarding the property, as mentioned above, the house was owned by the Cathedral before 1502, the date on which we have identified the first survey in the book of houses of the Chapter. According to this document, the tenants were Francisco Téllez and Florentina Manuel [29] (vol. III, p. 373). Florentina died before 1535. In that same year, Francisco made a will and expressed his wish to be buried in Madre de Dios (a convent on the other side of the street from where the house was located).

Under these circumstances, it can be assumed that the house belonged to the Téllez family, who at the end of the 15th Century had to sell it to the Cathedral chapter, and then hand to pay a rent of 3560 maravedís in 1502 (Table A1) in order to continue living in it. Francisco left it to his cousin Mayor de Vargas, wife of Juan de Alcocer (also considered a Converso), in his second will. The house ceased to be related to the family in 1542, probably due to the death of the last of the beneficiaries of the lease, since the lessee was Antonio de Moya in the survey of that year.

3.1.2. Cruces 2 House

The Cruces 2 house was also on the street of the same name, coming from Santa María la Blanca on the right-hand side (the last house on the street that makes a cross) (Figure 3). In 1542, it was bordered on both sides by houses of the Chapter and was owned for life by Pedro de Corral, who belonged to a family of Conversos [29] (vol. III, pp. 547–548), [30] (section II, book 9163, year 1542, sheet 355r). In 1555, he died and was buried with the dignity of an archdeacon of Niebla [30] (section I, book 23, year 1555, sheet 109v).

This house was very large, with a plot of about 500 m² and an approximate usable area of 710 m² distributed over three floors. It is striking the absence of a corral or a servicio de mujeres courtyard, and yet it had a large reception area (01, 03, and 06), a patio near the stables (10-1, whose use was ambiguous), and a main patio with arcades on three sides (11) (Figure 6 and Figure 7). In the 20th Century, it was demolished and replaced with an apartment building by a religious institution.

3.1.3. Cruces 3 House

In the same quarter was the Cruces 3 house, in the actual Ximénez de Enciso Street. It is described in the apeo of 1542 as being located “on Cruces Street, coming from the stores of the Jamardala to go to the parish of Santa María la Blanca on the left-hand side.” (Figure 3) In that year, Gonzalo de Écija had the property for life, and he may have had Converso family ancestry [29] (vol. IV, pp. 9–11), [30] (section II, book 9163, year 1542, sheet 359v).

This house was very compact (Figure 8). With a plot area of about 281.5 m², it had a usable area of about 340 m² distributed in a ground floor, first floor, and an elevated volume facing the street (Figure 9). Among the studied cases, it is the only one that had only a single courtyard; it did not have a corral or servicio de mujeres. However, it was richly ornamented, and it had a great spatial quality. It is one of the few Sevillian houses analyzed so far that had an entrance on a bend.

3.1.4. Cruces 4 House

The next house was in the quarter of Santa Cruz, located at the exit of the Ximénez de Enciso, on a narrow street that enters the Plazuela de los Leones (Figure 3). Its ownership history is also interesting. It was bordered in the 16th Century by houses of the Cathedral chapter and by houses of the Cardenal Hospital. [33] (books 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, protocol 138). (

Table A2. Chronological account of the facts collected in the sources and documents compiled on the Cruces 4 house, including date, intervening parties, and type of event. ADPS, Cinco Llagas Hospital, book 4 and 5, protocol 138.

Date Fact	Intervener 1	Fact	Intervener 2	Fact
13 August 1511	Álvaro Díaz, silversmith	Receive	Alonso de Jaén, merchant	Gave perpetual tribute
18 December 1556 Sale	Alonso López, merchant	Buy	María de Toledo, widow of Álvaro Díaz	Sale
28 June 1584	Lorenzo Hernández	Heir of Alonso López	Alonso López	Nominate heir
1586 Sale	De la Sangre Hospital (Cinco Llagas)	Buy	Lorenzo Hernández	Sale
13 February 1631 Rent	Juan (Pérez) de Aristizábal, from Vizcaya	Rent	De la Sangre Hospital (Cinco Llagas)	Own
13 June 1690 Rent	Mr Adrián Delgado, Sergeant Major	Rent	De la Sangre Hospital (Cinco Llagas)	Own

in Appendix A).

Until 1511, the house was owned by the merchant Alonso de Jaén, who sold it on that date (13 August) to Álvaro Díaz, a silversmith, for perpetual tribute. In turn, María de Toledo, wife of Alvaro Díaz, sold it to the merchant Alonso Perez on 18 December 1556, when she was widowed. On 28 June 1584, this Alonso Pérez bequeathed it in his will. He left the inheritance of the houses to Lorenzo Hernández, who sold them to the Hospital of Cinco Llagas on 23 December 1586.

In the monograph of Juan Gil, we find five Jews with the name “Alonso de Jaén.” If we accept the information from the survey identifying de Jaén as a merchant, the list of likely candidates is reduced to one: Alonso de Jaén married to Beatriz Fernández. He was the son of Diego González and Ana González. This Alonso de Jaén, also known as Alonso de Sevilla, was a reconciled Jewish merchant. He was a business partner of Bernardino de Isla, who swindled him with some wineskins.

We know from the consulted documents that the house was rebuilt in 1631, before the Hospital de las Cinco Llagas (owner of the house since 1542) leased it to the accountant Juan de Aristizabal from Biscay [33] (file 64, protocol 138): “The hospital gave this house for life to the accountant Juº Perez de Aristizabal for his own and his heir’s […] deed before Juan Bautista de Contreras public notary of Seville on 18 March 1631 for 100,000 maravedís in each year, and because it was finished, it was granted not to charge rent until 1 July of this year 1631.” We believe that the drawing of the house that appears together with the apeos dates from that year [33] (book 5, protocol 138). (Figure 10).

3.1.5. Guzmán el Bueno House

This house was located in the old neighborhood of Don Alfonso de Molina, also known as the Abades neighborhood (Figure 4). It is the largest among the houses analyzed so far (it has a current plot area of 1538 m²) (Figure 5). Additionally, the best thing is that it is still preserved with alterations made in the 16th, 17th, and 19th Centuries (there is a stone inscription placed on the façade containing the following dates: 1560, 1654, and 1856).

According to what we have been able to know from the written descriptive records of the houses of the cathedral chapter of 1502 and 1542, this house and the Olea House belonged to the Mayorazgo of Don Diego Fernández Marmolejo, archdeacon of Écija. He named his nephew Ruy Barba Marmolejo (also called Rodrigo) as heir in his will in 1489. The Mayorazgo (a family status, the right of the firstborn of a family to inherit all assets) included both the houses of his residence and the boundaries of his brother Nicolás, archdeacon of Jerez, among other possessions [30] (section II, book 9163, year 1542, sheet 240r); and [30] (section II, book 11560, expedient 1, various years 17th and 18th Centuries) (about house n. 33, registry 5, 12 May 1705, was said: “In the Boticas de las aguas going to the corral of Don Juan. It borders with the Mayorazgo founded by Don Diego and Don Nicolás Marmolejo and now owned by the Marquis de las Torres”). According to Juan Gil, “The Marmolejo were men who were friends of accounts and paperwork” since Francisco Fernández de Marmolejo was the major accountant of Juan I, and he was part of a powerful and influential Converso family [29] (vol. IV, pp. 406–414), [34]. At the beginning of the 18th Century, the ownership of the house passed from Francisco Marmolejo to the Marquis de las Torres. The latter got it because he married a Marmolejo bride, who carried it among the goods of her marriage dowry in 1710. In 2020, the descendant of the Marquis de las Torres sold it to an investor. The house is being renovated under the direction of the architect Ricardo Alario-López (Figure 11).

3.1.6. Vidrio House

The house was located on Vidrio Street, which name remains today (Figure 4). It had a usable area of 150 m² distributed on a ground floor (106.81 m²) and first floor (46.85 m²) (Figure 5) on a plot of about 220 m². On the main floor, it had an entry hall (casapuerta), a patio, a room (sala), a main room (palacio principal), a hall, an alley (portal), two pieces of room, a tiny patio (patinico), a kitchen, and two cattle pens (corrales) (182.86 m²). The last spaces from the alley could have formed the servicio de mujeres, but it was not said specifically in the written descriptive record of the house. On the first floor, it had three rooms above the entry hall and the rooms below (46.85 m²). A drawing of the main floor from 1577 has been located in the Archive of Diputación Provincial of Seville (ADPS) (Figure 12).

It was possible to compile archival information from 1483 to the present day, practically without missing any century since that initial date. In this case, the first record of this house dates from 11 September 1483, when the Catholic Monarchs gave it to Juan Ortega de Prado, a climber from the city of Alhama (Granada, Spain), in payment of 400,000 maravedís for his services in the war of Granada. According to the protocol, in the deed before the notary Juan Hernández Nieto [33] (book 4, protocol 19) (this protocol includes the history of the property from 1483 to 1506) this house belonged to the Monarchs who had it previously confiscated from a Converso family [33] (file 45, protocol 19) (a reference to Dr. Abulafia has been found on it. However, at the end of the file the public notary claims to have made a mistake and where it said Dr. Abulafia he meant Juan Ruiz de Sevilla, who was con-demned and burned in the same auto de fe that took place in Seville on the eve of the flowery Easter of 1481). (See

Table A3. Chronological account of the facts collected in the sources and documents compiled on the Vidrio Street house, including date, intervening parties, and type of event. ADPS, Cinco Llagas, b. 4 and 5, p. 19.

Date Fact	Intervener 1	Fact	Intervener 2	Fact
21 April 1481 Burn	Juan Ruiz de Sevilla, Jewish, public notary of las alzadas	Condemned and burned [46] (p. 181)	Catholic Monarchs	Confiscate
11 September 1483 Delivery	Juan Ortega de Prado, climber	Receive in payment	Catholic Monarchs	Grant
26 August 1485 Sale	Sebastián de Saavedra and Isabel de Sanabria his wife	Buy	Juan Ortega de Prado and Inés Barba his wife	Sale
18 March 1487 Sale	Juan Sánchez Ferrero and Francisca Rodríguez his daughter	Buy	Sebastián de Saavedra and on behalf of his wife	Sale
26 February 1496 Sale	Diego Dávila accountant of Doña Catalina de Ribera	Buy	Francisca Rodríguez, daughter of Juan Sánchez, blacksmith, Pedro Martínez de Montoya and Juan Bueno	Sale
15 January 1506	Don Fadrique Enríquez de Rivera, Marqués de Tarifa	Buy	Diego Dávila, accountant of Mrs. Doña Catalina de Ribera	Sale
21 March 1508 Barter	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Receive	Don Fadrique Enríquez de Rivera, Marquis of Tarifa	Change
15 February 1538 Rent	Antonio de Ribera, silk spinner	Rent	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Own
14 November 1542 Survey	Antonio de Ribera, silk spinner	Rent	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Own
21 June 1571 Protocol	Francisco de Ribera	Rent
9 December 1577 Survey	Francisco de Ribera, silk	Rent	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Own
1577 no data Survey	Francisco de Ribera, silk	Rent	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Own
24 May 1603 Rent	Juan de Mongolla (Mingolla), presbyter	Rent	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Own
25 June 1636 Rent	Francisco de la Barrera, Juror from Seville, neighbor of San Juan de la Palma.	Rent	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Owns
30 December 1669 Revision	Domingo de Villanueva, master dyer	Receive	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Own
1 July 1698 Rent	Pedro Gutiérrez	Rent	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Own
1795 no data Register of properties	Diego Valenzuela	Rent	Cinco Llagas Hospital	Own

in Appendix A).

3.2. Conservation

Nowadays, the original plot of Cruces 1 is segregated, resulting in two buildings, each with its own door opened to two streets (Madre de Dios and Mateos Gago-formerly Borceguinería). Remnants of part of the layout facing Madre de Dios Street remain. The first floor that housed the patio of the house was partially occupied in the area bordering the portal, as could be observed in the planimetry of a basic renovation project in 1983 (Figure 13). The courtyard is still in good conservation with its marble columns, although they are not in the same exact place. In addition, the staircase has not been moved, it is located where it was in the 16th Century, as well as the chamber, the stable and the first corridor, which housed the cellar, pantry/pieza and hall in this century, converted into a hallway and three other spaces. It is currently a hotel and contains an art gallery (Figure 14). The other half of the house, which had its door facing Mateos Gago, was not so lucky. It was fully renovated in 2014 into a hotel.

Regarding the Cruces 2 house, in the 20th Century it was demolished by a religious institution. Most of the plot was replaced by an educational building in 1986 (it is a corporate work of Opus Dei). In a similar way, little information on the development of the Cruces 3 house has been located using historical documents and more recent data. Based on the survey, the current plot does not pair with the shape of the house in 16th Century. Also, despite our efforts a visit could not be made.

On the other hand, the Cruces 4 house maintains most of its original structure: the load-bearing walls, the main patio, the staircase, the portals, the main room, and the kitchen with the pen at the back. In the 20th Century it was renovated to build a staircase that allows access to the upper floor from the street (Figure 15).

The Guzman el Bueno house is located on the same block as the Olea House, currently catalogued as an Asset of Cultural Interest. As noted before, its history is closely related to it. The house is currently owned by an investor who wants to rehabilitate the house as a hotel. The building has kept the main spaces from 16th Century, even a possible qubba of the 15th or 14th Century. This house and Cruces 4 are the best conserved [35].

The most recent information compiled about the Vidrio house refers to two files of the Official Association of Architects of Seville in relation to the authorization for some work carried out on the property in July 1990 and a Fire Protection Project in January 1991. This last piece of data confirms that the owner was executing the appropriate work to adapt it as a hotel accommodation in the 1990s. Currently it is a house which is used as a hostel-pension, at number 9 on the street (regarding the current tenants, their names are not able to be made public) (Figure 16).

4. Discussion

4.1. Three Unique Spaces

As we already know from our previous research, the residential areas of greatest wealth were located in the quarters of Santa María la Mayor and Santa Cruz, surrounding the Cathedral and the Real Alcázar of Seville (Figure 4). The ownership of most of the houses in the area of Abades Street and Las Gradas Street was in the hands of the Cathedral chapter (more than 1140 apeos and written descriptive records of the cathedral and some charitable hospitals have been consulted in the Archive of the Cathedral of Seville ACS- [30] (section II, book 9163, year 1542 and book 9717, year 1543)- and in the Archive of Diputación Provincial of Seville ADPS Cinco Llagas Hospital- [33] (book 1, 16th Century); Cardenal Hospital, Book 3, year 1580; Bubas Hospital, Book 3-bis, year 1585). On the other hand, although the Chapter also owned a good part of the houses of the old Jewish quarter, the majority of its buildings were owned by certain nobles [36,37]. Therefore, a large number of Seville’s main houses were leased to high-ranking church officials or wealthy Converso families. These Converso families had had to part with their properties in the past and remained living in their houses, paying rent for life.

The fact of living in these areas of the city was already a reason for pride and social prestige. If, in addition, the house had a large surface area, with many patios and richly ornamented rooms, it offered the visitor an appearance of high purchasing power and social rank. The desire to belong and have wealth (even if it was only a mirage) was materialized in the number of patios, reception rooms (recibimientos), stables, main rooms, women’s quarters (servicios de mujeres), their own ovens, gardens, and orchards that were part of the layout of the house.

It is well known that the main space of the Sevillian house was the patio. The greater the number and surface area of patios, the greater the wealth of its inhabitants. For this reason, the appearance of the main courtyard was very well cared for, and it was usually decorated, with the presence of portals on at least three of its sides, with a series of arches (danzas de arcos) (with plasterwork) and marble columns; it was like a performance space.

But the main patios were not the only spaces that embodied the grandeur of the family that inhabited the house. There were other characteristic spaces in the Sevillian house, among which we would highlight the reception courtyards (recibimientos) or entry halls, the main rooms, and the women’s quarters (servicios de mujeres).

In the specific case of the Converso houses, the former spaces were more important as a way of demonstrating ambition and the intention to fit into Sevillian society through ostentation. Thus, the latter were the intimate spaces where the forbidden religion was practiced without fear of being discovered. Perhaps they could help to understand better the reflection of emotions in the architecture of the Converso houses, which, in our opinion, can be extrapolated to all 16th Century Sevillian houses.

4.1.1. Recibimientos

The reception areas (recibimientos) were patios near the entrances of the houses that separated the outside from the intimacy of the house and served to receive visitors (who usually came on horseback). For this reason, this space that sometimes was used as a casapuerta had an associated stable. In addition, it had stalls and a mezzanine for the grooms to sleep and store the straw. The Cruces 2 house had one that was adjacent to the casapuerta-portal and stood out because it had several windows facing it. Additionally, it is distinguished by its above-average dimensions and by being disproportionate to the rest of the house. This reception room was designed to amaze the visitor; it had a stable on the right, two portals with arches and brick octagonal pillars, a chamber (probably to give shelter to the grooms), and an alley (Figure 17).

Between the Cathedral and the Charity Hospitals apeos and written descriptive records (1140 apeos of houses), 42 recibimientos have been identified. To these should be added some patios that had the same function although they were not included under this denomination. Some main courtyards had the same function and layout. In their porticoes, the arch series (danzas de arcos) with plasterwork was very common, with marble columns or brick octagonal pillars. Further, their floors were also very elaborate, usually with almatrayas, azonales, and olambrillas at the entrance of the main rooms and portals.

By analyzing the reception spaces identified as such, we can reach several conclusions, offering concrete examples based on the descriptions from the apeos. In the first place, these spaces do not always appear in large houses since there are eight exceptions, all related to commercial activity (three in Placentines and Francos Streets, one in Las Gradas, three in Carretería and one in Sierpe Street) [30] (section II, book 9163, year 1542, sheets 131r, 140v, 159r, 163v, 380r, 380v, 382r and 398r). Secondly, the houses of the Cathedral were not the only ones that had these open spaces; the houses of the Cardinal, the Bubas, and the Cinco Llagas Hospitals (spread throughout the city), also had them.

As for their spatial composition, all of them were uncovered, and most of them were on the ground floor (only one on the first floor, called high recibimiento, which fell towards the portals of the Gradas Street). In addition, that space used to have a brick floor, as in the case of the Cruces 2 house. Moreover, there were windows in its walls that looked out from the chambers, both low and high, and balconies. In most cases it had, at least, a doorway, and it was accessed from the casapuerta, a vestibule or closed doorway.

Finally, it usually had a staircase, stables, and sometimes direct access to the women’s quarter (servicio de mujeres). This was the case in the house in Guzmán el Bueno. This house had a casapuerta, stables, a reception area, and a servicio de mujeres with its own courtyard. Its reception area did not have a large area but was uncovered. Moreover, its shape and proportion resembled that of the Cruces 2 house since the casapuerta had the shape of a doorway, gave access to the stable (which had a mezzanine), and windows looked out onto it (Figure 18).

4.1.2. Main Rooms (Salas)

The main rooms were of similar rank to the palacios (rooms), and were even of a higher order than they (its average surface was 15 m²). These were located on the ground floor around the courtyards and portals and on the upper floor in the corridors. The alarifes (master builders) described them in detail, so it is understood that they considered them to be important rooms within the hierarchy of spaces in the house. This importance is verified when calculating their surface area, which results in an average of 22.80 m², larger than that of the palacio itself. They usually had another story above them or had gabled roofs. Their importance, not only constructive but also aesthetic, is further enhanced when it is known that they were decorated with tile almatrayas and white marble slabs at the entrances, and with tiles and alizares on the walls, which were usually also whitewashed and painted.

All the houses analyzed had at least one main room with a larger surface area than the median calculated for the rest of the city. In the Cruces 1 house, we found a room that had knot-worked doors (puertas de lazo) with shutters and a plaster arch. It was mortar plastered and had flooring of ajembrilla (a mixture composed of lime, sand, and arista, and produced a reddish colored surface finish on floors), perhaps because it was not in a good state of preservation at that time. This room had an area of 27.5 m² (ten and a half Castilian yards long by four Castilian yards less a quarter wide) and was gable-roofed on an eight-loop frame with limas moamares and had a partition arrocabe (limas moamares were double limes, one in each of the planes of the contiguous slopes, used in the curdled structure to delimit the dowels of the panels; arrocabe was an ornament in the form of a frieze at the top border of walls, made from plasterwork or wood, generally, it is organized as a decorative frieze) [18] (pp. 623–658).

For its part, the main room of the Cruces 2 house with an area of 30.6 m² (twelve-and-a-quarter Castilian yards long by three-and-a-half Castilian yards wide) had a portal in front with an almatraya of tiles and tablets and an azonal of white marble slabs. In addition, the portal was decorated with an alfarje (a wooden ceiling) of a loop of two sinos and a chilla and had a series of arches (danzas de arcos) on pillars of masonry along with its demuestras (columns on a wall, pilaster). From this portal, one entered the room, crossing though two doors with an arch of plasterwork of cuchillo. The room was paved on both sides with an almatraya of tablets, which began at the portal. It was roofed on a flat structure composed of beams, almojairas (a linear element in an alfarje or wooden ceiling smaller than beams), alfarjías, a half guarnición (ornament), and a zaquizamí (zaquizamí is a false ceiling of plaster or boards, sometimes decorated with plasterwork, laceries or with rods in the manner of stonework) [18] (pp. 685–686). Curiously, it had a window to the portal with an iron grille.

In the case of the Cruces 3 house, the main room was preceded by knot-worked doors. It had an almatraya of tiles that continued into the room and reached the boundary wall. The room was paved with bricks and the entrance had the continuation of the almatraya of the portal. It had an area of 33.4 m² (twelve Castilian yards long by four wide) and was gable-roofed on a framework of par y nudillo with three pairs of triangular trusses (tijeras), decorated with plasterwork arrocabe (Figure 19).

Finally, the room where the deer almatraya was located in Guzmán el Bueno had dimensions well above average, like that of a palace. With a floor plan of 67 m² (originally), it is the largest of those studied. Its great size added to the richness of the finishes in floors, walls, and ceilings must have been overwhelming, considering the human scale; one must have seemed disproportionately small upon entering this room. We assume that this was the intention: to overwhelm, to surprise, to make the visitor feel the weight of the power of the family that lived there.

The ceilings were composed of painted beams, with arrocabes, chillas (thin board, whose width varies between 12 and 14 cm and two and a half meters long), and menados (geometric decoration in the alfarjes; complementary planks that cover the streets of the framework), the walls were decorated with white, green, and black small tiles in geometric motifs (alizares: small glazed tiles or azulejos), and the floor was olambrado and decorated with the immense almatraya as a reception carpet that extended to the outer edge of the portal, as mentioned before.

4.1.3. Women’s Quarters (Servicios de Mujeres)

Another characteristic space of large houses was the women’s quarters (servicio de mujeres), also called “patio of the servicio de mujeres” or “cuerpo de mujeres”. They were a set of spaces in the most intimate part of the house, composed of a patio with a well, a kitchen with a hearth, a room (on the ground or the upper floor), a plain roof (for drying out clothes), and a cattle pen (corral) with its latrine [38]. The houses that had this type of quarter had an average occupied area much larger than the rest of the city (about 400 m²). Therefore, their owners or tenants must have been in a high place in the Sevillian social hierarchy (service, women’s service, in most cases refers to the women’s yard as well as the women’s section. They were a set of spaces destined to the work of the women inside the house. It used to be located at the back of the house). For example, the Casa de Contratación of Seville, adjacent to the Real Alcázar, the Casa de Pilatos [39], and the Palace of Dueñas had this type of space. Women’s quarters were in many other houses in Seville, including those owned by the Cathedral and in the hands of Converso families.

Women’s quarters did not have a fixed location in the layout of the house, and, although their installation in the deepest area and away from the street could be justified, given the tasks that were attributed to them, this was not always the case. Rather, they were adapted to the shape of the plot, and were conditioned by its size and also by the history of the ownership, its groupings, and segregations.

In conclusion, the women’s quarters, and their associated spaces in the Sevillian houses of the 16th Century, were a set of uncovered places (mainly courtyards, plain roofs, and pens), around which other covered areas were arranged (kitchens, pantries, chambers, and other rooms that we will see in more detail later). These rooms are defined by their function and are not always clearly separated from the rest of the house, as the casuistry is wide.

Among those studied, the Cruces 1 had this type of space, consisting of a kitchen, a patio, a pen, and a plain roof. The Cruces 2 house also had a set of spaces that could be the equivalent of the women’s quarter. The alarife who wrote the survey did not mention the specific term, maybe because it did not have a patio. The space consisted of an entrance with a staircase, two alleys (one with the latrine), and the kitchen (with a well, sink, basin, and chimney). It also had upper levels as rooms for women and a plain roof.

As has been seen in many of the Sevillian houses, there were constructive and decorative elements that denoted investment in architecture and purchasing power. They are not lavish, but there are frequently richly-forged ceilings, plasterwork in arches, tiled walls and paintings, the use of marble, or ornamental woodwork. However, the absence of these refinements in women’s quarters would confirm the functional conception that builders and users had for these spaces. That is why, from the point of view of the study of emotions, these types of spaces should not only be studied for what they signify within the house to which they belong, but also for what was lived and experienced in them on a daily basis: joy, loneliness, sadness, melancholy, fear, nostalgia, etc. -so characteristic of the spaces lived in by women, servants, and children, among others (Figure 20).

In the analysis of women’s quarters, it is revealing that these spaces were used by women, wives, or Converso mothers, to educate their children in Judaism or better said, in crypto-Judaism [40]. Those women who had not accepted baptism willingly became authentic transmitters of the principles of the Jewish religion. It is significant that Caro Baroja found, at the beginning of the 17th Century, examples of the personality of those women whom he describes as priestesses. And he explains it, because although “Judaism is a masculine religion in which the man always plays a leading role and the woman is excluded from participation in the synagogue, crypto-Judaism developed thanks to them.” [5] (vol. 3, pp. 139–140).

But it is necessary to go further back in time to verify what Caro Baroja distinguishes as “the religious personality and strength of women” in the private family sphere. At the end of the 15th Century, when the first inquisitors arrived in Seville to persecute the Conversos, there is already evidence for this “female priesthood.” In the absence of a rabbi, women pursued the same goal: teaching children the Mosaic doctrine and perseverance in the ancient faith. A piece of information that surfaced in the inquisitorial process that followed the Sevillian family of the Benadeva at the end of the 15th Century is sufficient to illustrate this. According to Ollero, who studied the process in detail, the Sevillian converts of that time were aware of differentiation, and they assumed their ancestors, the economic functions they preferentially exercised, the norms of their religious life, and the adoption of their own behavior and mentality [41].

Converted women were not excluded from this characterization except that they did not participate in the business of their husbands. In that tragic historical context for the Converso community of Seville, one of them, Isabel Suarez (wife of Pedro Fernandez Benadeva) stood out. Ollero defines her as a strong woman, who kept alive the flame of the Mosaic faith among her children. One of them, Francisco, gave her away in exchange for his life while interrogated by the inquisitors. He was quite explicit: “the father did not intervene in her religious formation” and never expressed his religious ideas. On the contrary, his mother began to indoctrinate him in the practice of the fundamental rites and ceremonies of Judaism when he reached the age of eleven [41] (p. 71). It was in this way, within the walls of the family home, that Isabel taught her children. But the confession of Francisco Suarez was decisive for the persecution of his mother who managed to escape from the inquisitors by fleeing to Portugal (the full confession can be found in the appendix) [41] (pp. 97–98).

It is well known that the educational role of this woman (and others like her) had to be developed in the space of the house reserved for women, a hidden place, where men or neighbors from outside the house could not enter. And that space could not be other than the women’s quarters, a suitable place for the religious purpose that was pursued, such that an area outside the ordinary religious environment and designed for work, rest, or female conversation was radically transformed. And although it is true that this space already existed prior to religious persecution, since it was but the result of a Mediterranean cultural conception of women and their place within the house, it is no less true that its educational-religious function, replacing the rabbinical school and perhaps the synagogue itself, gave it an importance and a distinction that transcended its daily functions and, at the same time, characterized and distinguished the Converso houses from the others.

4.2. Materialization of a Sevillian Singularity

An example of how the fear of one of the families was able to change the distribution of their house because they wanted to appear more Christian than Jewish has been brought up. For example, other families installed decorations at the entrance or main rooms of their houses to externalize their desire for acceptance, social integration, and religious inclusion.

Nevertheless, fear was often hidden behind a curtain of ambition and ostentation, not only of economic power but also of religious power [42,43]. Houses contained in the old Jewish quarter emanated these emotions and pretensions. Those materialized in very elaborate and highly representative ornamental details in their rich and spacious rooms. The main rooms, the patios, the religious images on the facades of the houses, the decorative motifs, the finishes, or the carpentry could give us clues about the forms of the aesthetic and spiritual expression of its inhabitants. Moreover, if there were signs of ostentation, then astonishment and envy for the outside observer were intended and generated.

Studying the religious origin of the tenants, it is verified that there are descendants of Converso families. Therefore, they make us think about the materiality of fear through the inclusion of religious images in places of the house that are most visible or frequented by guests (façades, casapuertas, patios, portals, main rooms).

Some of the decorations that can be identified with religiosity or spirituality are the decorative motifs on some floors, based on stags (given that popular iconography depicts Saint Giles and other saints accompanied by a hind, it is not surprising that his image was used to decorate the floors of the houses of pious and wealthy families). Also bases on deers (the deer appears in Pliny’s Natural History and other classical writings as an animal that is the enemy of snakes, which is why it was quickly adopted by Christianity as a representative figure of Christ who defeats the serpent of hell; representing the victory of the Church over the Devil. As a result, there are numerous medieval depictions of the stag and allusions to it by St. Augustine, St. Eustace, St. Bernard and others. The stag also symbolises the human soul and appears in one of the books of the Old Testament. The drinking deer became a new iconographic motif associated with baptism, a sacrament in which water quenches the thirst of the spirit and cleanses original sin; thus deer figures are frequently seen on baptismal fonts and also on chalices. In the case of the Jewish-converts, this refers to a self-affirmation of the act of baptism to the outside world to the visitor who would be responsible for reporting it socially, as further proof of a sincere Christianity). These were used as the main motif in almatrayas, azonales, or olambrillas (an almatraya was a rectangle on the pavement made from tiles or stone; an azonal was a decorative tape, border o frame, on the pavement that forms the boundaries of a carpet of tiles or marks the edges of a room; and an olambrilla is a decorative tile of about seven centimeters of side, which is combined with rectangular tiles or bricks, to form pavements and to cover baseboards) [18] (p. 625–626).

In our specific context, archaeological evidence of the presence of deer in a large almatraya has been found in the portal and at the entrance to the main room of the house of Guzmán el Bueno [44] (Figure 21). The image of the deer, with horns and in different positions, is striking for its spiritual ambiguity, both Christian and Jewish. For this reason, the owner of the house who commissioned the almatraya wanted, on the one hand, to capture the attention of the visitor, generating astonishment and envy, and on the other hand, to show a spiritual background that linked the house to its inhabitants. This almatraya not only is highlighted for the image of the deer, but also for its size (450 × 325 cm), design (cuerda seca –dry cord-, a Gothic figurative decoration and Mudejar tradition from Granada and Seville), and the origin of its ceramics, both local and from Manises (Valencia, Spain) [45] (vol. II, pp. 466–468). (Figure 21).

It is also known that there were images painted on some facades showing the Virgin Mary (Our Lady) under various titles (the Fifth Anguish and La Magdalena) and saints, such as Saint John, closely linked to the life of the Messiah. These were placed at the entrances or near them, in a door house or hall, in a portal, or on the very façade of the houses. (The following references to cervatallas have been found among the written descriptive records of the Cathedral: In Abades Street, in a casapuerta [30] (section II, book 9163, sheet 205v) -they were owned for life by Melchor Moreno, a fish market broker from a Jewish-converted family-; another in Abades Street, in a mezzanine [30] (section II, book 9163, sheet 207v) -they were owned by canon Luis Peñalosa “closed with a cervatalla of their skipped tiles”-; in Mármoles Street, in a room, [30] (section II, book 9163, sheet 299r) -lived by the juror Alonso Ruys, from a Judeo-Converse family “at the entrance it has an almatraia with two white paving stones and the azonares (borders) of modarça tiles the floor is of holambrado and the setting of zarvasallas of glazed tiles”-; in Santa Cruz, in the almatraya of the dining room, [30] (section II, book 9163, sheet 344r) -Francisco Ruiz clergyman chaplain of the royal chapel of Nuestra Señora de los Reyes had them for life-; in San Salvador, at Las Siete Revueltas Street, in a patio, [30] (book 9717, sheet 369r -Juan Hurtado, scribe of Las Gradas from a Converso family, had them “is a holambrado pavement tile floor with a cervata garnished with glazed tiles”-).

4.3. Alteration of a House Entrance: Cruces 1

At a historical moment in which the city had not yet forgotten the pogrom of 1391 or the drama of the expulsion and the end of the Jewish quarter as a unique neighborhood (separated from the surrounding areas by an interior wall), reforms were carried out in the house by Téllez, probably before being sold to the Cathedral chapter. It could be considered a paradigm of the transformation that took place in many of the houses that belonged to the Sevillian converts.

In this sense, the Téllez family, who lived in a house on Madre de Dios Street and whose pen was enclosed by the wall of the Jewish quarter of Seville, decided to change the layout of their house. Once the Jewish wall was demolished, the main door was opened to Borceguineria Street, as it was considered one of the most active streets and, most importantly, because it was outside the Jewish quarter.

It is not known exactly when this redistribution took place, but we know that since 1502 the property had belonged to Cathedral chapter, which in turn leased it to the family that had owned it until then, that is, the Téllez family. There are several reasons why we have come to the conclusion that their house was altered so that its inhabitants did not enter through the original door that led to the Jewish quarter, but through the opposite end, at the back of the plot, through which was the way out of the quarter.

Considering the richness of the spaces at the back of the house, such as the portal or the main room (“Also from this said patio we enter a portal […] and this wood is supported on three round arches alfiçarados and two marbles with bases and capitals […]. From this said portal we enter a room that has a few loop doors with their shutters and it is mortar paved and ajembrilla and it is ten and a half varas long and four varas wide minus a quarter and the top is gabled roof on a loop armor of eight with its litures [limes] mamares with its arrocabe of tiles I say of partition and the arch of the door is of jesería”) [30] (section II, book 9163, year 1542, sheet 341r). And taking into account that the women’s quarter (consisting of a patio with well and basin, a kitchen with fireplace, a pen with latrine, and a bedroom) used to be at the back of houses, suggest that the house was transformed at some point before 1502, and the door (casapuerta) was opened towards Cruces Street (now Mateos Gago). In other words, the original order of the house was reversed.

Also, even more peculiar is the fact that the highest elevations of the house are oriented towards Madre de Dios and not towards Cruces Street (“Also we went up a staircase […] a window to the street that goes to the monastery of Madre de Dios with an iron grille […]”) [30] (section II, book 9163, year 1542, sheet 341r). The first corridor facing that street is two stories high and has a window in each upper room (soberado). The survey of 1502 confirms this, saying it had a shutter towards Madre de Dios (“And then ahead there is a portal (11) roofed with a Moorish style roof carved on three arches with two marbles in which there is a palace (12) roofed with a Moorish style gabled roof with an alhania on the right hand in the portal on the left hand there is a cellar with a pantry (13 and 14) […] which has a shutter that goes out to the mother of God to the street”) [30] (section II, book 9163, year 1542, sheet 341r). (Figure 22).

The mentioned cellar would correspond with the previous casapuerta. It is curious that the survey of 1542 for the same house does not mention the shutter, but it does mention an ancón (a covered space, open on one of its sides, similar to a cubicle) of a Castilian yard wide (in Seville 835 mm), which we suppose would coincide with the opening of the closed shutter.

4.4. Preservation

Only four of the houses have been partially conserved, and, in our opinion, the possibility of their protection by public administrations should be studied. There are still many other houses to be reviewed and compiled in which, in addition to their experiences, the emotions of all those Jewish families must have been captured. In order to achieve this goal, support should be given to research because of the amount of information and the magnitude and importance of the city of Seville in the 16th Century. An urban analysis of conservation and digital recreations could be made, and the history of ownership could be documented as well.

5. Discussion

This paper contains the history and conservation of six houses located in the old Jewish quarter of Seville and its surroundings from an architectural and emotional perspective. It presents the stories of the Converso families who lived in them and the evolution of the ownership of their houses. In addition, emotions such as fear, appearance, pride, and ambition are analyzed in the most significant spaces. All of this is supported by current photographs as well as historical planimetry and self-made drawings in plans and recreations based on the available historical documents.

These houses were containers of certain emotions and, at the same time, expressions and materializations of others. The importance of women’s quarters as a set of intimate spaces where the forbidden and persecuted religion was practiced in that historical moment has been raised, at the same time that the ambition of the families to fit into the Sevillian society is evidenced through images in the coatings and finishes of rooms, halls, and portals, all in view of the visitor. Appearances were the center of social life and the key to becoming part of Sevillian society -so pious and so fearful.

We are pleased to have brought to light the documents in which all the houses’ spaces, dimensions, and construction characteristics are described in great detail. In addition, thanks to the precision and the data provided by the apeos, it has been possible to draw conclusions about their locations, types, and distributions, in addition to drawing hypotheses in a plan, elevation, and volumes. Thanks to the digital graphic reconstructions based on unpublished data and detailed descriptions, we can assert that elevations and plans of former Jewish houses are possible.

In our opinion, drawing the plans of the buildings of the former Hebrew Quarter in Seville is the key to the conservation of the lost heritage. Valuing the built heritage, both lost and preserved is possible thanks to the use of the methodology of translation of the historical text into planimetry and 3D images of the houses. In addition, once buildings are located, a virtual urban reconstruction of the area could be possible.