02/11/2025
This museum has the best stories of Jewish history ever. I love telling it. Murder, Blood Libel and massacres. It's named after Abraham Zacuto Long before GPS, Portuguese navigators relied on the stars — and on the genius of Abraham Zacuto, a Jewish astronomer born in Spain who found refuge here in Portugal.
Zacuto’s revolutionary astronomical tables and his metal astrolabe helped explorers like Vasco da Gama and Pedro Álvares Cabral navigate the oceans with astonishing accuracy. His work quite literally guided the ships of the Age of Discovery.
When King Manuel I expelled Portugal’s Jews in 1496, Zacuto fled, but his brilliance endured. His calculations continued to shape navigation and science across Europe and the New World.
🔭 Next time you gaze at the night sky over Portugal, remember the man who once mapped it for the world.
