Portuguese Architecture - Pombaline Style (1755-1860)

Pombaline Style (1755-1860)

Main article : Pombaline style

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and fires destroyed many buildings in Lisbon. Joseph I of Portugal and his Prime Minister Sebastião de Melo, Marquis of Pombal hired architects and engineers to rebuild the damaged portions of Lisbon, including the Pombaline Downtown.

The Pombaline style is a secular, utilitarian architecture marked by pragmatism. It follows the Plain style of the military engineers, with regular, rational arrangements, mixed with Rococo details and a Neo-classical approach to structure. The Baixa district of Lisbon was rebuilt by Eugénio dos Santos and Carlos Mardel. The Marquis of Pombal imposed strict conditions on the rebuilding. Architectural models were tested by having troops march around them to simulate an earthquake, making the Pombaline one of the first examples of earthquake-resistant construction. The Praça do Comércio, the Augusta street and the Avenida da Liberdade are notable examples of this architecture. This Square of Commerce was given a regular, rational arrangement in line with the reconstruction of the new Pombaline Downtown, the Baixa.

The Pombaline style of architecture is also to be found in Vila Real de Santo António (1773–4) a new town in the Algarve, built by Reinaldo Manuel dos Santos. The style is clearly visible in the urban arrangement and especially in the main square.

In Porto, at the initiative of the prison governor João de Almada e Melo, the Rua de S João was reconstructed (after 1757), and the Relação law court, the Court of Appeal Gaol (1765) and the prison were rebuilt. The British colony of port traders introduced the Palladian architecture in the Praça da Ribeira (1776–1782), the Factory House (1785–1790) and the S Antonio Hospital (1770).