Lisbon Israeli Cemetery
Visits are only allowed to our members, coreligionists and visitors who have buried loved ones.
Location:
Rua Afonso III, 44 – Lisbon
Opening hours and visits:
Monday to Thursday: 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. / 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday: 8.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.
Sunday: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Contact
Tel: 21 814 85 61
HISTORY
In 1868, King Luís granted “the Jews of Lisbon permission to establish a cemetery for the burial of their fellow Jews”. This was the Calçada das Lages cemetery (now Afonso III) – still the active and main cemetery of Lisbon’s Israeli Community. This royal decree is of real historical importance as it constitutes an implicit, albeit not formal, recognition of Lisbon’s Israelite Community.
In 1892, the Civil Government Charter ratified the statutes of the “Guemilut Hassadim Association, an Israeli brotherhood for mutual aid in times of need and funerals”. It was founded by Moses Anahory to provide spiritual aid, take care of burials, manage the two cemeteries (Rua Nova à Estrela and Calçada das Lages, today Av. Afonso III), and the respective death registers.
Old Jewish Cemetery of Estrela
HISTORY
Groups of Jews settled as such in Portugal at the beginning of the 19th century, even before the abolition of the Inquisition, which only took place officially and by decree of the Revolutionary Government on March 31, 1821.
Coming mainly from Morocco and Gibraltar, they settled mainly in Lisbon, the Azores and Faro. The Jews who settled in Lisbon, mostly from Gibraltar, cautiously kept their British citizenship.
A small plot of land in the Estrela cemetery was obtained in 1801 for the burial of the dead according to Jewish ritual, and the first grave was that of José Amzalaga, who died on February 26, 1804, according to the inscribed epitaph. The Jews of Lisbon were buried there until 1865.
