The image above is a floor plan of what the Portuguese merchant, Manuel Bautista Pere’s, home looked like in 1639. The most important aspects of this layout are the enclosed wooden balconies (labeled on the far right), as some individuals suspected that Bautista was using it to hide a secret Synagogue. This idea of secrecy and deception permeated Portuguese society, where people often believed that Jews were constantly trying to hide their identity and true beliefs from the Inquisition.