CASTROJERIZ:
Town in southern Castile, 18 miles west of Burgos. Jews lived there as early as the period of the Moorish rule. In the charter ("fuero") granted to the town in 974 by Garci Fernandez, count of Castile, it is ordered that the murder of a Jew be punished in the same way as that of a Christian. When, after the death of King Sancho, forty Jews were killed at Mercatello, Ferdinand I., his son and successor, settled the remaining Jews of that place at Castrojeriz (1035). After the death of Alfonso VI. of Castile, in 1106, the inhabitants of the neighboring Castro fell upon the Jews of Castrojeriz, killing many, making prisoners of others, and plundering their houses. The new king, Alfonso VII., and his wife, Urraca, forbade any further injury to the Jews of Castrojeriz on pain of heavy penalties. In 1234 Fernando III. confirmed the privileges which had been granted to the Jews. In 1474 the Jewish community paid 1,100 maravedis in taxes.
- Mufioz y Romero, Coleccion de Fueros Municipales, pp. 38-41, Madrid, 1847;
- Amador de los Rios, Historia, i. 173 et seq., 190; iii. 591.
