Wow, Lys, that's a lot of trivia.

I can't source to anything more reliable that stories long told to me by near-strangers and things I may have read somewhere, but I have no connection to Bonnie Morris and also have heard about the public pork during the time of the Inquisition.

Anyone who spends 15 minutes in Spain will notice huge legs of salted, aged ham hanging from the ceiling of nearly every place that serves food, from the fanciest restaurant to your corner cafe. (for the non-kosher among you, "jamon serrano" is quite tasty).

When I was there I remember being told that recently converted Jews started the tradition of hanging hams in public, in order to prove to all the world that they were really Jewish.