Septiembre Sefardí festival invites visitors to explore Sagunto's Jewish quarter
The seventh edition of Septiembre Sefardí (Sephardic September) invites visitors until 27 September to discover Sagunto's old Jewish quarter, with night tours, visits to Grau Vell and a family treasure hunt.
What is left in Sagunto today of the Jewish community that lived in the city for centuries? That is the question behind the seventh edition of Septiembre Sefardí («Sephardic September»), the free programme the Tourism Department is running until 27 September to mark the European Day of Jewish Culture, through guided routes, a digital game and several family activities.
The answer starts in 1492: the Catholic Monarchs' expulsion decree forced around 700 Jewish residents — one in three people living in the town at the time — to leave before the end of July that year. It was the abrupt end of centuries of Jewish presence in Sagunto.
This year's programme is built around the slogan «Amor» («Love»), focusing on the connection to the land and on how collective memory can link very different generations. The idea is not to treat the Jewish quarter as a museum piece frozen in time, but to show it as a space that is still very much part of the city's identity.
So what can visitors actually see today? The guided routes lead to a defensive tower thought to date from around 1366, to the remains of the old synagogue underneath houses on Sangre Vieja street, to a mikveh (ritual bath) next to it, and to a cemetery carved into the rock that still holds around sixty hypogea (underground burial chambers). These physical traces, more than any archive, are what give a real answer to the question the programme is named after.
The schedule offers two clearly different types of guided visit. One goes through Grau Vell, the city's former harbour, with tours on 12, 19 and 26 September at 6pm and an extra one on 20 September at 11am. The other heads into the Jewish quarter itself after dark, with sessions on 12, 18, 19 and 25 September starting at 10.30pm, designed to show the same neighbourhood from a different angle once the sun goes down.
The programme closes on Sunday 27 with a family treasure hunt through the Jewish quarter starting at 11am. For anyone who prefers to explore alone, at any time, «El secreto del Rabino» («The Rabbi's Secret») remains available throughout September — a free digital game that turns Sagunto's own streets into a game board, with no need to register or install anything on your phone. Finishing it and rating the experience earns access, while stocks last, to a promotional pack collected at Casa dels Berenguer (a historic house in the old town).
The programme also aims to give a boost to local shops: anyone spending €30 or more at a business with the SICTED tourism-quality label can claim two tickets for one of the activities, rising to four tickets for spending of €60 or more. There are three options to choose from — the night tour of the Jewish quarter, a themed visit to the Grau Vell fort, or the 27 September family treasure hunt — and tickets are claimed by showing a stamped receipt at the Tourism offices in Sagunto (Plaza Cronista Chabret) or Puerto de Sagunto (Avenida Mediterráneo 67), or by email.
The whole programme is also part of a joint action by the Red de Juderías de España (Network of Spanish Jewish Quarters), which Sagunto belongs to alongside other towns with a Sephardic past: until 30 September, a heart-shaped banner will stand in the courtyard of Casa dels Berenguer for photos to share on social media with the hashtag @redjuderias, with prizes for participants. Being part of that network is more than symbolic — it lets Sagunto join a joint tourism campaign that reaches beyond its own borders, which is especially useful for a Sephardic heritage that competes for attention with better-known landmarks in the city, such as the Roman Theatre or the Castle.
For residents, part of the appeal is the price tag: almost all the activities are free, which is unusual in September, when the family leisure calendar tends to thin out after summer. Combining guided visits, a digital game and discounts at local businesses makes Septiembre Sefardí one of the few cultural offerings in the city aimed at tourists and year-round residents alike.
According to El Periódico de Aquí, with additional information from Wikipedia on the Judería de Sagunto.