During the Middle Ages, Plaça St Jaume was much smaller and had a small church of the same name with a cemetery attached. This Church and cemetery were removed in the 19th Century. The Jewish Quarter was located right at the entrance of Carrer del Call and Carrer Sant Honorat. In the Middle Ages, Barcelona was not only an important crossroad and center for trade routes, but a place of exchange in culture, religion and science. Barcelona’s Jewish community became an integral part of the development of the city, important for commerce, trade and daily life. Its population comprised artisans and blacksmiths, merchants and sailors, some were officials for the court and advisors to the kings, physicians, and head rabbis. They spoke Catalan as their everyday language, studied Latin, used Hebrew for religion and law, and some were translators of Arabic medical and scientific documents in the south. It is common belief that Jews arrived in Catalunya as early as the first century with Roman expansion across the Mediterranean, though we have little evidence of this. In the 9th century, we see the first document with mention of a Jew called Juda, who came from France, however there is little documented evidence until the 11th century. From then, the community began to grow, Barcelona becoming one of the largest Jewish communities in the Catalan Aragon territory of the middle ages. The word Call is the name for Judería, Jewish quarter, in Catalan. Perhaps coming from Callum, ‘small street’, or Kahal, meaning community. The Jewish Quarter took up this corner of the walled city of medieval Barcelona. There were only two entrances, each gate with a gatekeeper who was paid by the Jewish community. One gate was located right here, the other just down the road to the left. In the Middle Ages, this street (Carrer Sant Honorat) was called ‘the street of the fountain’, as Jews who didn’t have a well in their home, a luxury at the time, would have to leave the Call and collect water from the wells located in Placa Sant Jaume, a dangerous activity, especially at times such as Easter, when fears of blood libels and other rumors spread among the Christian communities. Because of this, in the 14th century a fountain was built inside the Jewish quarter, in this street. At the entrance, there was a synagogue ‘poca’ or ‘xica’ , the ‘small’ synagogue.
