The Beurs (Bourse) of Antwerp in an engraving dated 1531 from Plate 7 ref 373

Antwerp

The rise of Amsterdam as the key haven for Western Sephardic Jews owes much to the strong presence of Portuguese crypto-Jews in Antwerp during that city's 'glory days' (ref 373). Antwerp in the years after 1535 was the key to transfer by Dona Gracia Nassy of the House of Mendes from Portugal to the Ottoman Empire together with relatives, associates and much of her family's fortune (ref 373 p109). Even after Spain moved to control Antwerp much more closely after 1576, Portuguese New Christians could still be found there.

Though Antwerp does not directly appear in the story of the Baruch Lousadas, there are many indirect appearances of the city in their story. Some of these appearances were:

1. Antwerp was the origin of key ancestors of the Barbados Lindos and Mercados.

2. Fernando Montezinos died there in 1659 after escaping Madrid with the help of Abraham Israel Pereira.

3. Before this, 2 of Pereira's children married with de Pintos who left Antwerp in the 1640s.