The synagogue was built in around 1357, under the patronage of Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia. His family had served the Castilian kings for several generations and included kabbalists and Torah scholars such as Meir and Todros Abulafia, as well as another Todros Abulafia who was one of the last poets to write in the Arab-influenced style favored by Jewish poets in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Spain. The synagogue was connected to Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia's house by a private gate and was intended as a private house of worship. It also served as a center for Jewish religious education, known as a yesibah or a yeshiva.