Baixa and Chiado: the city rebuilt after 1755: a self-guided walk

By Alleytale

Lisbon after the great earthquake, from the river square up to Chiado

The earthquake of 1 November 1755 destroyed much of Lisbon, and each of these stops is something it ruined, replaced or spared: a palace yard rebuilt as a square, a church that still carries its fire scars, a convent left open to the sky, an opera house built to replace one the quake destroyed.

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The stops

1. 1Praça do Comércio

   Before 1755 this was the Terreiro do Paço, the yard of the Ribeira Palace, where the king of Portugal lived. The earthquake destroyed the palace, and under the Marquis of Pombal's rebuilding the architect Eugénio dos Santos designed a U-shaped square open to the Tagus, renamed Praça do Comércio for its new commercial role. In the middle stands the equestrian statue of King José I by Joaquim Machado de Castro, and the Rua Augusta Arch was only finished in the 19th century.

   

2. 2Teatro Nacional de São Carlos

   Queen Maria I opened this opera house on 30 June 1793 to replace the Tejo Opera House, which the 1755 earthquake had destroyed. The architect José da Costa e Silva was inspired by great Italian theatres, with the San Carlo in Naples and La Scala in Milan named as models. The outside is sober, with a portico, a loggia and a clock.

   

3. 3Convento do Carmo

   Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira founded this Carmelite convent in the late 14th century. The 1755 earthquake destroyed its library of about 5,000 volumes, and the stone roof over the nave collapsed and was never rebuilt, so the Gothic arches stand open to the sky. The ruined church is now the Carmo Archaeological Museum, with Gothic tombs, Moorish azulejos and Roman and Visigothic objects.

   

4. 4Rossio (Praça de D. Pedro IV)

   The official name is Praça de D. Pedro IV, but the people never accepted it and still say Rossio. The 1755 earthquake levelled most of what stood here, and Eugénio dos Santos and Carlos Mardel rebuilt the square in the second half of the 18th century. In the 19th century it was paved with Portuguese mosaic, and the National Theatre D. Maria II, built in the 1840s on the site of the old Inquisition palace, faces the square.

   

5. 5Igreja de São Domingos

   The 1755 earthquake almost completely destroyed this church, and the rebuilding begun soon after was not finished until 1807. In 1959 a fire devastated it again. When it reopened in 1994 the restoration left many signs of the fire in place, which is what you see on the stone inside.

   

6. 6Igreja de São Roque

   King John V commissioned the Chapel of Saint John the Baptist here, and it was built in Rome to designs by Luigi Vanvitelli and Nicola Salvi before being sent to Lisbon. The church was one of the few buildings in Lisbon to survive the 1755 earthquake relatively unscathed. Behind its plain outside, the nave ceiling is painted to give the illusion of a barrel vault.

   

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