1755 - 1755
Destruction of the Insurance’s House in the Lisbon Earthquake
On the 1st November 1755, “Todos os Santos” day, around 9:30 a.m., Lisbon was devastated by a great earthquake.
Part of Lisbon’s population was in the churches when the earth shook violently, followed by a violent tsunami and a fire that left the center of Lisbon practically destroyed. At all, more than 10,000 buildings were destroyed and between 70 and 90,000 people died in a city that had 275,000 inhabitants at the time.
The devastation of this earthquake was felt throughout the country and in Spain (notably Seville and Carmona) seriously damaging many buildings.
The Insurance’s House, which operated on Rua Nova dos Ferros, was destroyed during the 1755 earthquake, as well as its documentary archive.
Image caption
“Lisbon ruins. After the earthquake, the survivors lived in tents on the outskirts of the city, as this German engraving from 1755 illustrates”
Image extracted from “Wikipédia – Sismo de Lisboa de 1755”
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sismo_de_Lisboa_de_1755
