Night art

By Anthony Piovesan

Jews in 1492.

In his 1604 history of Utrera, Rodrigo Caro, a local priest, historian and poet, described an area of the city centre as it had been in earlier centuries, saying: “In that place, there were only foreign and Jewish people who had their synagogue where the Hospital de la Misericordia now stands”.

Utrera mayor Jose Maria

Villalobos said it was ‘now scientifically certain that we’re standing in a medieval synagogue right now’.

THE prestigious Latin Grammy awards are coming to Spain this November in a three-year deal - the first time they are being held outside the United States.

The announcement was made in Sevilla but the specific dates and the host city were not named, though Sevilla appears to be the front-runner. The Latin Grammys were first held in Los Angeles in 2000.

Last year, they took place in Las Vegas, where Spanish artist Rosalíia (right) won best album for ‘Motomami’. Andalucia president, Juan Manuel Morena Bonilla, met with the Latin Recording Academy CEO, Manuel Abud. Both parties described the deal as 'historic' and 'unprecedented'.

“Until now there were only four such buildings in all of Spain - two in Toledo, one in Segovia and one in Cordoba,” he said.

“This is an exceptional building that’s been part of Utrera and part of its inhabitants’ lives for 700 years.

“This building was born in the 1300s and has made it all the way to the 21st century.”

Visits

One of the key reasons for its survival was that the site was always in use for one purpose or another. The building could be opened for public visits in parallel with archaeologists continuing to excavate the site. The next phase of the project will look to see if there was a rabbi’s house nearby, or a religious school.

Op Quick Crossword

THE Prado Museum in Madrid is now opening its doors on a Saturday evening, as part of a new project called ‘The Prado at Night’. The public are able to visit a selection of different galleries inside the trove of artworks on the first Saturday of each month from 8.30pm to 11.30pm. The aim is to ‘connect more closely with all sectors of the public’, according to the museum. The project will also include musical events, and is being sponsored by Samsung. Entry will be free of charge from 8.30pm onward, until all of the available spaces are full. Access will end at 11pm. ‘The Prado at Night’ will run on the following dates: March 4; April 1; May 6; June 3; July 1; and August 5. The museum is the most-visited in Madrid, and racked up more than 2.4 million visitors in 2022.