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Trading properties after the earthquake: the rebuilding of eighteenth‐century Lisbon

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 26; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02665433.2011.550450

1466-4518

Maria Helena Ribeiro dos Santos, Ferran Sagarra Trias,

Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

Abstract This paper introduces the innovative system used in the reconstruction of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake. Its findings are based on original documents that offer a detailed picture of the principles and methods established to convert the land and properties of the old city into the new and standardized gridded Plan. Implemented in the mid‐eighteenth century, the methodical system outlined was, undoubtedly, an important point of reference for the large‐scale urban improvement and redevelopment operations that would follow in nineteenth‐century Europe. Keywords: Baixa Pombalinaeighteenth centuryurban historyurban planningplanning ordinancesreconstructionearthquake Notes 1. José‐Augusto França, Lisboa Pombalina e o Iluminismo, 3rd ed., rev. ed. (1987; Lisboa: Livraria Bertrand, 1st port. ed., 1966), the first and still the most comprehensive work about the reconstruction, refers to the legislation that approved and implemented the Plan but does not present any specific analysis about the actual equivalence process used to distribute the new lots; similarly Manuel C. Teixeira and Margarida Valla, O Urbanismo Português. Séculos XII–XVIII (Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, 1999). Recently, the legal aspects were studied by Claudio Monteiro, Escrever Direito por linhas rectas. Legislação e planeamento urbanístico na Baixa de Lisboa 1755–1833 (Lisboa: AAFDL, 2010). 2. These documents are from a collection with 31 books and 135 bundles. To achieve a global perspective of the property transformations occurred, it would be very interesting to develop a thorough research. This paper is the result of research carried out by Helena Ribeiro dos Santos in the Departament d’Urbanisme (DUOT) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) under the direction of Ferran Sagarra and funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Lisbon). 3. Jorge Hugo Pires de Lima, ‘Inspecção dos Bairros de Lisboa’, Anais das Bibliotecas e Arquivos, XVII, nos. 65–72 (1943): 31–8. 4. The Dissertação was first published in Cristovão Aires, Manuel da Maia e os engenheiros militares portugueses no Terremoto de 1755 (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional, 1910), 25–50. It is the transcription used in the present study. The importance and originality of Manuel da Maia’s work was studied by Helena Ribeiro dos Santos, Baixa Pombalina. Passado e futuro (Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, 2000); ‘As Fachadas da Reconstrução: características e evolução’ (paper presented at the O Terramoto de 1755. Impactos Históricos, Lisboa, 3–5 November 2005); ‘A Praça do Comércio e os Planos para a Renovação da Lisboa baixa’ (paper presented at the Conference Praças da Europa, Praças para a Europa. Que futuro para a Praça do Comércio? Lisboa, 27 April 2009); ‘Os 6 Planos da Reconstrução’ (paper presented at the Jornadas sobre A Cidade Pombalina: História, Urbanismo e Arquitectura. Os 250 Anos do Plano da Baixa. Grupo ‘Amigos de Lisboa’ and ‘Fundação das Casas de Fronteira e Alorna’, Lisboa, 7–8 May 2008); and ‘Variaciones en la urbanización de la Baixa de Lisboa’ (master’s thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2009). See also José‐Augusto França, A reconstrução de Lisboa e a Arquitectura Pombalina (Lisboa: ICLP, 1989) and Manuel Teixeira, ‘O plano de reconstrução da baixa de Lisboa: a expressão erudita do modo tradicional de planeamento da cidade portuguesa’ (paper presented at the O Terramoto de 1755. Impactos Históricos, Lisboa, 3–5 November 2005). 5. Dissertação, 2nd Part, §3 and §5 (Aires, Manuel da Maia, 33–6). 6. Ibid., §6, 37. 7. The manuscript documentation studied can be found under the following references: ‘Feitos Findos, Inspecção dos Bairros de Lisboa, Bairro do Rossio’: Tombo, Adjudicações e Posses and Avaliações books; ‘Feitos Findos, Inspecção dos Bairros de Lisboa, Bairro da Rua Nova’: Tombo, Adjudicações e Posses and Avaliações books; ‘Feitos Findos, Inspecção dos Bairros de Lisboa’: Projecto de Lisboa Nova. It has also been consulted at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Lisboa) the simplified copy of the Tombo, a manuscript by José Valentim de Freitas (1860–1870), and the reconstitution he made of Lisbon before the earthquake (General Plan and 17 partial plans). 8. Ordered by the Decree of 29 November 1755 (Antonio Delgado da Silva, comp., Collecção da Legislação Portugueza desde a ultima Compilação das Ordenações. Legislação de 1750 a 1762 (Lisboa: Typografia Maigrense, 1830), 401–2). 9. The figure comes from the Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa, Cartulário Pombalino (Lisboa: CML, 1999), drawing n.1, commented in: Santos, Baixa Pombalina. The law of 12 May 1758 approved the new Plan and the legal framework that would guide the whole process (Silva, Collecção da Legislação Portugueza 605–8); the Plan of 12 June 1758 together with the related Instruções (regulations) defined the new urban structure and its architectural principles (Joaquim Inácio de Freitas, comp., Collecção Chronologica de Leis Extravagantes, Posteriores à Nova Compilação das Ordenações do Reino, Publicadas em 1603. Tomo II. Que comprende o Reinado do Senhor D. José I até o anno de 1761 inclusivamente (Coimbra: Real Imprensa da Universidade, 1819), 87–100). All these ancient legal documents relating to the rebuilding process referred to in the text can be found at http://iuslusitaniae.fcsh.unl.pt/. See also the letter sent by Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo to the Duque de Lafões, Regedor da Justiça, on 16 June 1758, sending the Reconstruction Plan, and the Decree where ‘His Majesty has decided all the doubts that were discussed in the latest Conferences about the re‐edification of the part of the City, (…): So that Your Excellency may order to mark and set out the Streets and Travessas defined in this Plan, in the conformity with what His Majesty has decided about’ (Freitas, Collecção Chronologica, 103). 10. See §35 and §39 of the Instruções (Freitas, Collecção Chronologica, 96–7). 11. It was stated that the ancient Nova dos Ferros and Confeitaria Streets would become the new Nova d’El Rey Street, parallel to Terreiro do Paço Square, and would be crossed by the three main streets. It would make available the public land in the Pregos and Barrete Arches, and, in case this was not sufficient, it was to be complemented with unoccupied public areas in the Pelourinho and in the Ver‐o‐Peso Squares. In the case of comuns, majorats and chapels, the lot should be evaluated considering its revenue before the earthquake and discounting the damages, and this value should be paid for pro rata by everyone in this zone, because they all will benefit from the new street layout (Ibid., §44, 99). 12. Augusta Street will substitute the former Ourives do Ouro, Douradores, and Escudeiros Streets that were formed by covering the Cano Real in the fifteenth century. The Edict of 12 June 1759 (Silva, Collecção da Legislação Portugueza, 662–3) was printed, and a copy can be seen glued in the f.2 of the Posses book of the Bairro da Rua Nova. 13. Each Avaliações book begins with a copy of this document as ordered by the Arcebispo Regedor Dom João in the Aviso of 29 December 1760. 14. See the Alvará of 15 June 1759 with new rules to comply in the rebuilding (Silva, Collecção da Legislação Portugueza, 663–5). 15. The author of the Reconstruction Plan, Capitão Eugénio dos Santos, and the Property Registrar (Ministro) in charge of the District ought to be present at the adjudications in order to execute what was decided in that conference of the 10 June, presumably to solve any doubts and questions in the very moment of the adjudication. The letter of Sebastião de Carvalho e Melo quoted previously states clearly the importance of these ‘Conferences’ to discuss the problems of the reconstruction of the city (see note 9). 16. See the Instruções of 19 June 1759 (Freitas, Collecção Chronologica, 110–11). 17. The slight difference found in the module of the first blocks of the street is due to the accommodation of the Rossio lots that had a 100 palms depth. Even if initially the corner lots were to follow the rules used for Augusta Street, afterwards they changed to the Rossio Square project that – almost simultaneously – was approved on 19 June 1759 with its own specific equivalence and distribution process. 18. In this zone of the plan, the standard block is a rectangle of 323p × 116p = 37,468 sp (71.06 m × 25.52 m = 1813.5 m2). The common depth being 58 palms (12.76 m), the 2 modules lot area has only 73 m2 (1508 sp). Most of the former lots had areas from 34 m2 (700 sp) to 180 m2 (3700 sp). 19. See João Appleton, Reabilitação de Edifícios Antigos (Amadora: Edições Orion, 2003) and Stephen Tobriner, ‘A gaiola pombalina: o sistema de construção anti‐sísmico mais avançado do século XVIII’, Monumentos, no. 21 (September 2004): 160–7. 20. See José Eduardo Horta Correia, Vila Real de Santo António. Urbanismo e Poder na Política Pombalina (Porto: FAUP Publicações, 1997); Marie‐Thérèse Mandroux‐França, ‘Quatre phases de l’urbanisation de Porto au XVIIIe siècle’, Colóquio Artes, no. 8 (July 1972): 35–46; Rafael Moreira, ‘Uma utopia urbanística pombalina, o “Tratado de Ruação” de José Figueiredo Seixas’, in Pombal Revisitado, vol. II (Lisboa: Editorial Estampa, 1984). 21. See Serrão Pimentel’s Método lusitânico de desenhar as fortificações das Praças Regulares e Irregulares (1680) and Azevedo Fortes’s O Engenheiro Português (1728). For a global discussion on Portuguese tradition and planning principles, see José Manuel Fernandes, ‘A propósito da Baixa e das malhas ortogonais: Algumas reflexões. Os diferentes graus de regularidade e de geometria na cidade de matriz portuguesa’, Monumentos, no. 21 (September 2004): 44–9. 22. Between 1755 and 1759, 60 small towns were founded in Amazon, according to Renata Malcher de Araujo, As Cidades da Amazónia no Século XVIII. Belém, Macapá e Mazagão (Porto: FAUP, 1998).