Fundäo

Chief town in the district of the same name, province of Beira, Portugal. Of the27,000 inhabitants of the entire "conselho" more than one-third are of Jewish origin. For more than two centuries the Inquisition decimated this population, the first victim being Gracia Henriques, wife of Manuel de Almeida, who was burned at the stake at Lisbon April 1, 1582. Many Maranos emigrated from Fundäo at the beginning of the seventeenth century, several of whom, among them Antonio Fernandez Carvajal, were in London about 1656.

Judaism has not entirely disappeared from Fundäo, the fast of Yom Kippur being even now observed by some families officially classed as Catholics.

Bibliography:

  * Archivo Torre do Tombo a Lisbon, MS. 732, fol. 79:
  * Auto da Fé de Lisboa, 1582;
  * Conselho Geral Santo Officio, Maco 7, Nos. 2583-2587, 2590, 2591, 2593, 2594, 2610, 2612, 2614, 2626;
  * Lucien Wolf, Crypto Jews, p. 9 and passim.



G. C. de B.