History

Over three thousand Jews were brutally murdered in Lisbon between 19 and 21 April 1506. A fuse was all that was needed for ancient antisemitic myths to generate a catastrophe. King D. Manuel I and the Court had left town to safeguard against the effects of the bubonic plague, the city was lacking the royal guards and no one was able to halt popular anger.

The massacre began when many Catholics were praying in the Convent of S. Domingos for the end of the plague and the drought that had affected the city for several years, and a light shining on a crucifix was interpreted as a miracle. Attracted by the noise, a young Jew tried to explain that the light on the crucifix was merely a reflection and not a miracle, infuriating the population who thirsted for some sort of transcendent happening.

The young man was immediately lynched and burned. The furious crowd bayed for Jewish blood, initiating a bloody manhunt that extended to the whole city and the surrounding area for three days, without restrictions. Even babies were thrown on the bonfire in a city filled with quartered bodies, where heads were paraded on the points of spears.