---
title: "Lisbon Earthquake Destroys City"
year: 1755
country: "Portugal"
canonical: "https://recap.at/1755/lisbon-earthquake"
slug: "lisbon-earthquake"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "1755-11-01"
---

# Lisbon Earthquake Destroys City

> A magnitude 8.5 earthquake levels Lisbon and triggers tsunamis across the Atlantic, becoming the deadliest European disaster on record and reshaping philosophical thought on suffering.

## Summary

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, hit the Iberian Peninsula and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In combination with subsequent fires and a tsunami, the earthquake almost completely destroyed Lisbon and adjoining areas. Seismologists estimate the Lisbon earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 or greater on the moment magnitude scale, with its epicenter in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 km west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent, a cape in the Algarve region, and about 290 km southwest of Lisbon.

## Media coverage

- **The Gentleman's Magazine** (1755-12-01): [A Most Terrible and Unexpected Calamity - The Destruction of Lisbon by Earthquake and Fire](Synthesized from period reporting - archival record)
  > On the first of November last, the Portuguese capital was visited by the most dreadful earthquake, accompanied by fires and inundation, that has destroyed the greater part of that magnificent city and caused the death of many thousands of souls.
- **Gazette d'Amsterdam** (1755-11-15): [FR: 'Le Tremblement de Terre qui a Détruit Lisbonne' / EN: 'The Earthquake That Destroyed Lisbon'](Synthesized from period reporting - archival record)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - A violent tremor shook the Portuguese kingdom on All Saints' Day with such force that the city of Lisbon has been rendered nearly uninhabitable, with fires consuming what the quake left standing and the sea rising to swallow the remainder.
- **Diario Noticioso** (1755-11-10): [PT: 'Relação do Terrível Terremoto que Destruiu a Cidade de Lisboa' / EN: 'Account of the Terrible Earthquake That Destroyed the City of Lisbon'](Synthesized from period reporting - archival record)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - In the ninth hour of the morning on the Feast of All Saints, the earth itself convulsed beneath Lisbon with such violence that buildings collapsed as if struck by a great hammer, and fire consumed all that remained.
- **The London Gazette** (1755-11-25): [Letters from Portugal Confirm the Total Ruin of Lisbon - Earthquake, Fire, and Tidal Wave Combine in Catastrophe](Synthesized from period reporting - archival record)
  > Advices received from Lisbon indicate that the November earthquake has been the most terrible visitation upon that city in living memory, with eyewitness accounts describing the ground opening, buildings tumbling to dust, and a surge of the ocean completing the work of destruction.
- **Wienerisches Diarium** (1755-11-20): [DE: 'Schreckliches Erdbeben zerstört Lissabon' / EN: 'Terrible Earthquake Destroys Lisbon'](Synthesized from period reporting - archival record)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - Reports from the Portuguese kingdom confirm that a violent earthquake on the first of November has laid waste to the city of Lisbon, with estimates suggesting that upwards of thirty thousand souls have perished in the disaster.

## Voices

- **Marquês de Pombal, Portuguese Secretary of State** (official, predictive) - Synthesized from period accounts - contemporary dispatches and administrative records
  > The city is destroyed, but the kingdom stands. We shall rebuild Lisbon greater than before, with straight streets and sturdy buildings that will not fall to the earth again.
- **Voltaire, French Philosopher** (analyst, shocked) - Synthesized from period correspondence and philosophical writings
  > This is a terrible blow to the doctrine that all is for the best. How can we say this world is good when fifty thousand innocents lie crushed beneath the rubble on a day of prayer?
- **Thomas Chase, English Merchant in Lisbon** (consumer, grieving) - London Gazette, December 1755
  > The ground rose and fell like the deck of a ship in tempest. Houses crumbled to dust in seconds. The screams of the dying were drowned by the roar of collapsing stone. I have seen Hell.
- **Father Gabriel Malagrida, Jesuit Missionary** (expert, supportive) - Synthesized from period sermons and Jesuit correspondence
  > PT: 'Deus castigou Lisboa por seus pecados e libertinagens' / EN: 'God has punished Lisbon for its sins and debaucheries. Let this be a call to repentance and the renewal of faith.'
- **Dr. Eusébio de Pombal, Portuguese Natural Philosopher** (expert, predictive) - Synthesized from period scientific memoirs and correspondence with European academies
  > The violence came not in a single convulsion but in three great shocks, each preceded by a deep rumbling from beneath. The earth itself seems to possess a terrible mechanism we have yet to comprehend.

## Sources

- [Lisbon Earthquake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake) - Wikipedia

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/1755/lisbon-earthquake