On either side of the altar are long Hebrew inscriptions now illegible, and the precise meaning of which has been a subject of fierce and perpetual controversy. The text on the Epistle side may be translated: “The mercies which God hath shown us, raising up amongst us judges and princes to deliver us from our enemies and oppressors.... And we of this land have built this house with a strong and mighty arm. The day that it was built was great and delightful for the Jews, who, attracted by the fame of these things, came from the ends of the earth to see ... if a ruler should be given us who should be as a tower of strength ... to govern our commonwealth.... And there was raised up to help us, Samuel [Levi,] and God was with him and with us, and who found for us grace and mercy. He was a man of peace, powerful among all the people, and a great builder. These things were accomplished in the reign of the King Don Pedro; may God be his helper, enlarge his dominions, prosper him and succour him, and place his seat over all princes. May God be with him and all his house, and may every man be humbled before him ... and let those who hear his name rejoice to hear it in all the Kingdoms, and let it be manifest that he has been unto Israel a defender and a shield.” The inscription on the Gospel side proclaims the Rabbi Myir Abdali as the architect and extols his pre-eminent virtues, and pathetically celebrates the return of good and prosperous times--times not destined to last for the luckless race! In the neighbourhood of the synagogue exists the skeleton of the palace built by the great Jewish treasurer. It afterwards passed into the hands of the Marquises of Villena, and is associated with Don Enrique de Aragon, uncle of Juan II., a very interesting personality. He was a man of vast learning, and was, probably in consequence, reputed to be a magician and in league with the Evil One. Indeed, his magnificent library, including his own writings, was, in after years, burnt by order of the Inquisition. Beneath the mansion are still to be found various subterranean chambers, which popular superstition declares to have been the scene of Don Enrique’s conferences with Satan and his satellites. This necromancer was indeed Marquis of Villena, but it is by no means certain that he inhabited this house, which afterwards became the property of another family (the Pachecos), on whom the title was conferred by Enrique IV. The palace was deliberately burnt by its owner, the Duque de Escalona, in the reign of Charles V., it having been contaminated, as he thought, by the temporary residence within its walls of the Constable de Bourbon, then in arms against his own country. The Castilian grandee’s sense of honour was not a mere pose. The building is now the property of the Marquis de la Vega, who has tastefully restored it. It receives additional interest from its having been, as is now believed, the home of El Greco.