The first Natural Disaster….Lisbon 1755 Enlightenment Plan

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At approximately 9.30 am on 1/11/1755 an earthquake measuring 9 on the richter magnitude scale struck Lisbon City, Portugal. Sequenced by three aftershocks and a tsunami the city was reduced to ruins. Fires from the sub sequential quake damages; burned ferociously for 5 days scorching 2/3 of the City Centre or Baixa (Lower City). November 1st being All Saints day, and the Portuguese as devoted Catholics were mostly attending mass. A large number of churches collided crushing thousands.

Carmo Convent ruins, which crushed thousands of people on November 1st 1755

In orange are the areas of Lisbon which vanished along with the Great Fire 1755

King Jose I directed the First Minister José de Carvalho  e Mello (Marquês do Pombal) to re-invent the city from scratch. Pombal entitled General Manuel da Maya as the supervisor of 6 other military engineers /architects who were to take in stages the development of New Lisbon(Baixa Pombalina).

“Lisbon was no longer the city of the King, Cardinal Patriarch and the nobility. It was to be the home of the people’s government, the merchant and the middle class.” (John R. Mullin 92)

Captain Poppe was one of the military engineers who developed the grid like rectangular patter of streets and wide ‘boulevard’ like avenues. One of these avenues connected the Baixa to two large plazas[praças], Terreiro do Paço(today’s Praça do Comercio) and Praça do Rossio. Terreiro do Paço had since then become secluded from the city which had become enveloped by this grid like fortresses of housing dwellings “Lisbon was turning its back on the sea”.

PLANO GERAL DA CIDADE DE LISBOA EM 1812
Plano geral da cidade de Lisboa em 1812 [Material cartográfico / f. Constantino. – Escala [ca. 1:12000], 5000 Palmos [portugueses] = [9,00 cm]. – [Lisboa : s.n.], 1812. – 1 pl. : color. ; 36,90×52,20 cm http://purl.pt/1717

The new chance of re constructing Lisbon gave Pombal the chance of pushing the city in the direction of recent Enlightenment Plans developing across Europe. North of Rossio, Pombal developed the ‘Passeio Público’ or Public Promenade.

SERRANO, F. A., fl. 1850-1869
Passeio Publico do Rocio [Visual gráfico / S. lith.. – [Lisboa : s.n., ca. 1850] ([Lisboa] : Lith. R. N. dos M.es 2 e 4. – 1 gravura : litografia, p&b ; (imagem) 14,5×23,4 cm http://purl.pt/13801
. – Data provável segundo a actividade do autor

A gated Garden for the elite and autocratic classes, the gardens encompassed fountains, waterfalls and a variety of flora; these of course were to depict the same style of design found in the Camps D’Elysees, France.The development of Street Lighting in late 18thcentury also pushed the newly built Lisbon into modernity in a very short space of time.

ILLUMINACAO DO PASSEIO PUBLICO EM 1851
Illuminação do Passeio Publico em 1851 [Visual gráfico]. – [S.l. : s.n., 1851?] (Lx.ª [i.é, Lisboa] L. da Trind.e <[i.é, Largo da Trindade] >n.º 9 : Lith. de A.S. Castro. – 1 gravura : litografia, p&b ; 13,5×22,5cm (imagem) http://purl.pt/13802
. – Soares, E. – Inv. da col. de est., n.º 1690

Subsequently   from the development of ‘Passeio Público’ came the Avenida da Liberdade, another replica of more recent Camps D’Elysees; the garden walls securing ‘Passeio Público’ were taken down by order of King John VI, allowing the whole of the populace free to enjoy this space.

‘Passeio Pùblico’ without gates and walls

The avenue stands as grand today as it did then, leasing to a large roundabout with an erect Statue of Marquês do Pombal, north of the Marquês do Pombal Plaza is Park Eduardo VII a garden similar to Jardin Versailles.

Park Eduard VII , LIsbon with the Statue of Marques do Pombal erected at the bottom.

Lisbon as it stands today.

Terreiro do Paco today

Marta Guerra

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