Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Christians (Iberian Muslims and Jews who converted to Christianity), and overhauled
education.
When Lisbon suffered a devastating earthquake in 1755, Pombal swiftly rebuilt the city.
He was by then at the height of his power, and succeeded in dispensing with his main en-
emies by implicating them in an attempt on the king's life.
He might have continued had it not been for the accession of the devout Dona Maria I
in 1777. The anticlerical Pombal was promptly sacked, tried and charged with various of-
fences, though never imprisoned. While his religious legislation was repealed, his eco-
nomic, agricultural and educational policies were largely maintained, helping the country
back towards prosperity.
But turmoil was once again on the horizon, as Napoleon swept through Europe.
A DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE
Lisbon in the 1700s was a thriving city, with gold flowing in from Brazil, a thriving merchant class and grand
Manueline architecture. Then on the morning of 1 November 1755, a devastating earthquake levelled much of the
city, which fell like a pack of dominoes, never to regain its former status; palaces, libraries, art galleries, churches
and hospitals were razed to the ground. Tens of thousands died, crushed beneath falling masonry, drowned in the
tsunami that swept in from the Tejo or burned in the fires that followed.
Enter the formidable, unflappable, geometrically minded Marquês de Pombal. As Dom José I's chief minister,
the Marquês de Pombal swiftly set about reconstructing the city, good to his word to 'bury the dead and heal the
living'. In the wake of the disaster, the autocratic statesman not only kept the country's head above water as it was
plunged into economic chaos, but he also managed to propel Lisbon into the modern era.
Together with military engineers and architects Eugenio dos Santos and Manuel da Maia, the Marquês de Pom-
bal played a pivotal role in reconstructing the city in a simple, cheap, earthquake-proof way that created today's
formal grid, and Pombaline style was born. The antithesis of rococo, Pombaline architecture was functional and
restrained:
azulejos
(tiles) and decorative elements were used sparingly, building materials were prefabricated,
and wide streets and broad plazas were preferred.
Dom José I, for his part, escaped the earthquake unscathed. Instead of being at residence in the royal palace, he
had ridden out of town to Belém, with his extensive retinue. After seeing the devastation, the eccentric José I re-
fused to live in a masonry building ever again, and he set up a royal residence made of wood outside of town, on
the hills of Ajuda, north of Belém. What was known as the Real Barraca (Royal Tent), became the site of the
Ajuda Palace (Palácio Nacional de Ajuda;
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)
after the king's death.
