lisbonblog

On all Saints’ Day, I would also like to remind you of the year 1755, when several convulsions (with a strength of up to nine on the Richter scale) destroyed the city of Lisbon. At that time, around 275,000 people lived in Lisbon, of which 90,000 died during the earthquake. The earthquake was so powerful that its effect could be felt from Africa to Sweden and from Italy to the Caribbean…
I once read a small article about this event in a newspaper, where the church wanted to interpret it as God’s punishment. However, the inhabitants of Lisbon were of a different opinion, particularly because many churches had been destroyed, whereas the former road with brothels had largely remained unharmed…
As a result of the catastrophe, more information became available on the subject and scholars discovered seismology as a new science. Not only did Portugal rebuild the entire city of Lisbon, but also reformed its entire state system.
All this took place exactly 250 years ago and has had a lasting effect on this world…
It proved to be particularly fatal was that it was (and still is) the custom on all Saints’ Day to place lit candles on each windowsill to commemorate the dead. Thus it was not only the enormous force of the earthquake that caused destruction, but also the fires sparked off by the candles.