Enclosure and Crisis: The 1415 Ghettoization

Branching off the main thoroughfare, Carrer de Sant Llorenç is a steep, dark alleyway framed by flying stone arches overhead. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, this alley served as the heart of El Call and housed a second synagogue complex. However, anti-Jewish violence across Catalonia in 1391 devastated the community. The definitive spatial crisis arrived in 1415, when a joint papal and royal decree mandated the strict physical containment of Girona's remaining Jewish population. Side entrances into Carrer de Sant Llorenç were masonry-walled, closing off public thoroughfares and forcing all access through a single monitored entry gate. Standing in this narrow passageway, you can observe how the open urban fabric was converted into an enclosed, controlled ghetto.