Memorial to the Victims of the 1506 Massacre - Lisbon

Lisbon tribute to the victims of intolerance and religious fanaticism.

Inaugurated in the framework of the 500 years since the massacre of 19 April 1506, this memorial is in the location where the massacre started, in the square opposite the St. Dominic Church, in Lisbon.

On the evening of 19 April, Dominican friars instigated the population to kill the new Christians. Between 2,000 and 4,000 people have died in a barbaric form, incinerated in piles in various parts of the city.

The memorial is a work of 2008 by Graça Bachmann, on a proposal from the Jewish Community. It is made of stone, a sphere, a symbol of the world, truncated that evokes violence and chaos. On the Star of David, an inscription alludes to the massacre. At the base, a rectangular block of stone where the sculpture lies, one can read a phrase from the Book of Job: "O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place".

Next to this memorial, right in front of the church door, is another monument where, in 2000, the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, José Policarpo, assumed the shame of inquisitorial persecution.