Today, 28 March, is the National Day of Historic Centres. The Historic Centre of Oporto, classified in 1996 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was settled by Jews for many centuries.
Religious intolerance and conspiracy theories against the Jews led King D. Manuel to issue an edict in the late 15thcentury forbidding Judaism. Practically all signs relating to the Jews and to Judaism were destroyed, as were the Jewish quarter, the synagogues and the cemetery.
The Jewish Community of Oporto invited hundreds of school students to visit their synagogue, instead of the narrow streets of the historic centre of Oporto, where apart from plaques, stones and street names, the only presence is that of the Jewish soul.
