The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755
...ple off their feet. After a brief pause there came a devastating tremor that lasted about five minutes that literally shook Lisbon to pieces. Almost immediately after this came the third and final shock. Many buildings collapsed, burying those inside and on the street outside. Next came the inevitable fire. On All Saints’ Day almost every churchgoer would have lit a candle, which resulted in tens of thousands of unwanted arsonists. Fire rampaged through the ruins of the city for three days and flames consumed the city of Lisbon. A third disaster came while the fires were raging. This time the disaster was a tsunami that was triggered by the quake. At about 11:00 am the sea rolled back leaving the riverbed bare and then came a great wave. Roaring and foaming it came back in about fifty feet high and dropped about twenty feet where the bay widened. It invaded the city for more than a half a mile before losing its force, breaking down bridges, smashing down walls, and sending ships into one another. Gradually the wild sea subsided and by 2:00pm boats were making their way through the wreckage to carry refugees to safety. In all more than 60,000 people died in the disaster in Lisbon alone and thousands more died in other areas. The quake essentially leveled Lisbon and was felt throughout Western Europe and Northwestern Africa. The fire caused the heaviest loss of the city’s material wealth. Foreign merchandise that was worth about twelve million pounds of sterling was incinerated along with the Royal Palace, Patriarchal Church, the Palace of the Inquisition, and the new opera house. Thousands of buildings were either burned or reduced to rubble. However, the cultural loses matched the material loses. In the Marques de Lourical’s palace the flames consumed two hundred pictures along with eighteen thousand books, a thousand manuscripts, and a treasury of maps and charts. Seventy thousand books vanished in the burning of the palace and countless collections were also destroyed. Many people thought that the quake was a result of an angry God responding to Lisbon's sinful ways. However, they were unable to explain why one city was destroyed while other...