The Aftermath

Prado de San Sebastian (Seville) one of several sites of the Auto da fe.

Prado de San Sebastian

Seville Spain 2025

I finally arrived in Seville, Spain. It was a hot summer’s day. I waited until it had cooled off a bit. I came to find my ancestors, who practiced Judaism in secret.

I enter the plaza. It has many places to walk, many cafes and a fountain in the middle. It also is near the water, making for a beautiful place.

This was the plaza where they were burned at the stake. 

But where is a plaque or sign mentioning the atrocities done to the Jews, by the Spanish clergy?

Hundreds, maybe thousands of people accused of being Jewish were punished here often being burned alive in what are now these pleasant parks and commercial plazas.

Throughout Europe, there are memorials for the concentration camps, but so little in Seville where hundreds of people died believing in their Jewish faith!

  Epilogue from a blog written by David Tabb in 2018:

"In one of my last acts at the city of Sevilla, I took a walk to the Prado de San Sebastian, quite close to our hotel. This parade was home to the Quemadero, a platform with four statues at which many victims of the Inquisition were burned to death. It was originally constructed in 1481, and it remained in place until 1809. Today the Prado San Sebastian is a beautiful park, with rides for children. I paused for a moment in memory of the people who met terrifying deaths there.

According the best authorities, from 1481 to 1808, the Holy Tribunal of Spain burnt 34,612 persons alive, 18,048 in effigy, and imprisoned 288,109, the goods and chattels of every one them being first duly confiscated."

Editors note:

The "cross of the inquisition"  (Cruz de la Fe) was a large, ornate cross carried in a procession to the  auto-da-fé  held at the Plaza de San Francisco as a symbol of the Inquisition's Ecclesiastical authority.

This same cross is currently used during Holy Week processions  in Plaza Nueva  by the Confraternity of the Cross of the Faith (Hermandad de la Santa Cruz), a penitential brotherhood linked to the Inquisition. 

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Hundreds maybe thousands of people accused of being Jewish were punished here. Often being burned alive for practicing Judaism. I’m shocked! In Poland, there are memorials for concentration camps, like Auschwitz, where the Jews were brutally murdered. Many camps are still there so people will know what our ancestors faced. But nothing in Seville where hundreds of people died believing in their Jewish faith! Many people don’t know this tragedy. Sadly, having lunch here is like eating a sandwich at a concentration camp. Which I don’t have the stomach for.

The item taken from Seville's Plaza Francisco (or del Arenal) used in both the Inquisition's auto-da-fé and Holy Wednesday processions that is used in our present times is the Cross of the Inquisition (Cruz de la Fe), a large, ornate processional cross symbolizing the Inquisition's power, displayed during sentencing. This same cross is  carried in Holy Week in Plaza Nueva  by the Confraternity of the Cross of the Faith (Hermandad de la Santa Cruz), a penitential brotherhood linked to the Inquisition.