It originated in the old Jewish quarter of Seville, when King Ferdinand III of Castile conquered the city, Seville was home to the the second largest Jewish community in Spain, after Toledo. After the expulsion of the Jews in 1483, the neighborhood that occupied what is currently the Barrio de Santa Cruz and San Bartolomé, in the early 19th century there was an initiative to recover the neighborhood, opening the Calle Mateos Gago (the only relatively wide street in the neighborhood) and redevelop the square that bears his name.