Transito Synagogue

The Transito Synagogue (Synagogue of El Tránsito), also known as the Synagogue of Samuel ha-Levi or Halevi, is a historic synagogue, church, and Sephardic museum in Toledo, Spain. It was built as an annex of the palace of Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia, treasurer to King Peter of Castile, in 1357. The synagogue was converted into a church after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. It was briefly used as military barracks during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s. It became a museum in 1910. Today it is formally known as the Sephardi Museum. The building is known for its rich stucco decoration, its Mudejar style, and its women’s gallery.

The synagogue was built in around 1357, under the patronage of Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia. His family had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholars such as Meir and Todros Abulafia, as well as another Todros Abulafia who was one of the last poets to write in the Arab-influenced style favored by Jewish poets in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Spain. The synagogue was connected to Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia’s house by a private gate and was intended as a private house of worship. It also served as a center for Jewish religious education, known as a yesibah or a yeshiva.

Some scholars suggest that Peter of Castile assented to the construction of the synagogue as a token of appreciation for ha-Levi Abulafia’s service as councillor and treasurer to the king. Peter may also have allowed it to compensate the Jews of Toledo for destruction that had occurred in 1348, during anti-Jewish pogroms that accompanied the arrival of the Black Death. Samuel ha-Levi eventually fell out of favor with the king and was executed in 1360.

After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, the synagogue was converted to a church. It was given to the Order of Calatrava by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. The Order is said to have converted the building into a church serving a priory dedicated to Saint Benedict. It was from its time as a church that the building acquired the name “El Tránsito,” which refers to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In the 17th century the church’s name changed to Nuestra Señora del Tránsito: the name derives from a painting by Juan Correa de Vivar housed there which depicted the Transit of the Virgin.