Isaac Cardoso Interpretation Centre for Jewish Culture - Trancoso

Knowledge centre of Sephardic culture in Trancoso.

The Isaac Cardoso Interpretation Centre for Jewish Culture is a contemporary building situated in the former Jewish quarter of Trancoso. It pays tribute to the Jewish doctor born in Trancoso in the early 17th century, who became Chief Physician of the Court of Madrid and sought refuge in Verona, Italy, due to religious persecution.

This centre's mission is to preserve the Jewish legacy in the region, and is a place of study, reflection and knowledge of the Hebrew presence in this town.

The centre has temporary exhibition rooms, a memorial of the victims of the Inquisition with 515 names of the prisoners of Trancoso and a Synagogue, named Beit Mayim Hayim - House of Águas Vivas.

The Synagogue, which is a source of inspiration in the Synagogue of Tomar, is all in wood, contrasting with the granite in the rest of the building. As with the stylisation of the four columns, representing the Matriarchs of Israel, all the wall coverings point us to the ceiling where an entanglement built with light boxes represents the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

In 2013, the Isaac Cardoso Interpretation Centre for Jewish Culture received a Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll or the Law), which returns to Trancoso 500 years after the expulsion of the Jews ordered by King D. Manuel I in 1496, and later the forced conversion, and by the Inquisition which decimated the Jewish community of Trancoso.