Jewish Heritage of Setúbal

In 1542, a tailor from Setubal was burned at the stake in Lisbon’s Rossio square. His crime: proclaiming himself the Messiah. His name was Luis Dias, and his story – at once tragic and extraordinary – is the most vivid thread in a longer tapestry of Jewish life in this port city on the Sado. Yet the tapestry itself has almost entirely unravelled. Today, no street, no plaque, no museum in Setubal commemorates a community that once formed part of the city’s fabric.