Institutions

The Inquisition.  The mere mention of  this infamous institution, brings cold terror into my heart.  Even now, so many years after my liberation from another mind-bending institution, the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture, I can still feel the fear of a converted Jew in fifteenth-century Spain, hiding his faith from his neighbors.  It was only natural that during my travels in Spain, I would seek traces of its Jews, and of their archenemy, the Inquisition.

On my first day in Madrid, I strolled through Plaza Mayor.  The heavy bronze benches, interspersed within the Plaza, caught my attention, and I stopped for a closer look.  Plaza Mayor was the center of Madrid civic life during the seventeenth century.  Important ceremonies, bullfights, and executions by the Inquisition, took place here.  Today, the large, traffic- free square is home to outdoor restaurants and street performers.  Its benches are occupied by gentlemen quietly reading the paper, and matrons in animated discussions.  I waited till one man vacated his space and examined the carved bronze panel on the back-rest.  The scene on the panel was shocking, yet familiar.  It depicted a stack of logs on fire, a man tied to a stake inside the fire, and a crowd of onlookers around it.  I waited impatiently for a few more minutes before another man folded his paper and the next panel became viewable.  In this one, a man sat tied to a tall chair, the rope around his neck extended behind the chair where someone was pulling it tight.  Standing beside the man, a priest was reading from a thick book.    The third panel showed the victim in a large pot, a fire burning beneath it, and here again a priest and many onlookers present.  No inscriptions explained these scenes, but the situations were unmistakable.  I was looking at the various methods used by the Inquisition to execute converts to Christianity, accused of practicing their old religion.

Now, I can only regret, that I did not take the time to examine and photograph every bench in the square.  How could I realize this would be my first, and perhaps only, encounter with the Inquisition?  After several weeks in Spain I can conclude that while the omnipresent Spanish Tourism Office deserves many compliments on its excellent presentation of Spain's heritage, it is also just as efficient in suppressing controversial topics.  Another example, is the glaring absence of any monument or museum devoted to the civil war.

Plaza Mayor, the statute of the Rambam in Toledo, and other photos from Spain can be found online at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/isaac.ohel/Spain#