Jewish Sciacca - Ecomuseum of the 5 Senses of Sciacca

Sciacca preserves still today memories of the presence of a flourishing Jewish communityfrom the second half of the 14 th century until the fateful 1492, the emanation year of theexpulsion decree to its detriment by order of Ferdinand the Catholic. The Community wassettled mostly in the Cadda’s quarter, also inhabited by Christians, engaged in commercialactivities such as the sale of grain, leather, and fabrics of which today the notarial actsreveal interesting useful information to reconstruct the history of this presence that in 1435appears to be formed by a thousand individuals out of a total population of about 10,000inhabitants.The Jewish minority of Sciacca spoke Arab and lived in a non-hostile environment, inwhich however, intolerance was always lurking, and sought to keep its own cultural identityin a never-ending exchange with the Jewish presence from the African coasts that couldeasily reach the city of Sciacca. Now concealed by post-diaspora stratifications: thesynagogue's sites, the School, and finally, the Jewish graveyard, out of the city walls. Anitinerary telling the memory of an important cultural presence, emerged thanks to the studyof precious archive documents. Translated by Francesco Ferrara