ALMAGRO

ALMAGRO, town in Castile, Spain, administrative center of the Order of calatrava . Jews probably settled there soon after the Christian reconquest (14th century). It was one of only four communities in the area of Ciudad Real that existed in the 14th and 15th centuries. The community developed during the 15th century, when cities in the crown domains offered little security to their Jewish population, but from the amount of tax paid it was a small one. During the 1460s it was able to construct a synagogue. There was also a sizeable converso group, and many Conversos from Ciudad Real took refuge there when they were attacked in 1449, 1469, and 1474. A number of the New Christians in Almagro were sentenced by the Inquisition in Ciudad Real and Toledo. The Jewish community was assessed to pay 800 maravedis in 1474 and 4,365 maravedis in 1485 to finance the war against Granada, and survived until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. There is no information on the location of the Jewish quarter. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Beinart, in: Sefer Yovel… Y. Baer (1960), 207–15; idem, Anusim be-Din ha-Inkviziẓyah (1965), index; Baer, Urkunden, pt. 2 (1936), 370; Suárez Fernández, Documentos, 65, 80. (Haim Beinart)