The Synagogue of Tomar is one of the best-preserved medieval synagogues on the Iberian peninsula, a small but dignified building tucked into a narrow street in the old town. Built in the early fifteenth century, it served Tomar's Jewish community for a brief and ultimately tragic period before the forced conversions and expulsions of 1496–97 ended Jewish communal life in Portugal. The building's survival is largely fortuitous — its thick walls and vaulted stone interior found various practical uses over the centuries.
Today the synagogue is a national monument housing a small museum focused on the history of the Tomar Jewish community and on Sephardic Jewish life more broadly. The interior is plain and almost austere — four cylindrical columns support a vaulted ceiling, and the original walls are whitewashed as they would have been in use. Small inscribed stones and ritual objects are displayed around the perimeter. The simplicity of the space is itself eloquent: this is a place that survived by being useful rather than beautiful, and the marks of its various afterlives are still visible.
The museum's collection includes a range of artefacts donated by Jewish communities from around the world as well as materials relating specifically to the converso communities of the region. Worth half an hour, and a useful counterpoint to the Christian triumphalism of the convent on the hill.