For all its contemporary serenity, the city’s history is messy. Tzfat was originally built by Canaanites and settled by Jews during the time of the First Temple and later by Arabs in the 7th century AD. Plundered first by the Romans and later by the Crusaders led by Tancred, it was ultimately conquered by the Mamluk ruler Baybars in 1266. Having slaughtered the Crusaders, he built Tzfat into a major administrative center for the surrounding region, including Galilee and Lebanon. A thriving Jewish community reemerged in the Middle Ages, when refugees from the Inquisition began to build the synagogues of today’s Spanish Quarter. Mystical and scholarly sects settled in Tzfat as well, among them that of Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, known to his followers as Ha’Ari, “the lion.” Many of the synagogues of these leaders as well as countless legends about their great works survive. Some of the Hasidic Jews who live here today claim to be heirs of the mystical Kabbalists who lived in Tzfat during the 16th century.

During World War I, famine and cholera devastated the Jewish Quarter and the town became predominantly Arab. Jews and Arabs coexisted amicably until 1929, when Tzfat’s Arabs participated in bloody anti-Jewish riots sparked by Hajj Amin al-Husseini. In the 1948 War of Independence, Tzfat was fiercely contested because of its strategic position at the heart of northern Galilee. All 12,000 Arab residents fled as the Israeli forces took over the city in May. In recent years, Tzfat’s picturesque surroundings, serendipitous alleys, and cool summer air have attracted artists and vacationers escaping the muggy coastal plane.