São Nicolau and Rua dos Fanqueiros: A City Drawn With a Ruler
Why is it significant?
Look along the street in both directions: straight as a ruler, the same height of building, the same rhythm of windows, the same iron balconies on the first floor, all the way to the end.
Key Facts
| Place | São Nicolau and Rua dos Fanqueiros: A City Drawn With a Ruler |
|---|---|
| Address | Rua da Vitória, 1100 Lisboa, Portugal |
| Geo Coordinates | 38.71100, -9.13620 |
| Part of Walk | After the Earthquake: The Baixa Pombalina and the Lisbon of 1755 |
| Generated | Generated |
Look along the street in both directions: straight as a ruler, the same height of building, the same rhythm of windows, the same iron balconies on the first floor, all the way to the end. And then notice the church of São Nicolau, which does not stand in a grand square, but slots into the line of houses like one more neighbour.
That modesty was policy. After 1755, the Baixa was not patched up, it was redesigned from scratch. The ageing chief engineer of the kingdom, Manuel da Maia, laid out the options: rebuild the old maze, widen a few streets, or start again. Pombal chose to start again, and the plan drawn by the architects Eugénio dos Santos and Carlos Mardel gave Lisbon this rational grid between the river and the Rossio.
Churches had to fit the plan, not the other way round. São Nicolau, a parish that goes back to the Middle Ages, was rebuilt slowly over the following decades with its front aligned to the street. Pombal's critics complained that the new streets were absurdly wide. He is said to have answered that one day they would seem too narrow. Watch the traffic squeezing past and judge for yourself.
Now read the street signs. The new grid was given to the trades. Rua dos Fanqueiros was for the cloth and linen dealers, Rua do Ouro for the goldsmiths, Rua da Prata for the silversmiths, Rua dos Correeiros for the saddlers and leather workers, Rua dos Douradores for the gilders. Rua da Prata was originally named Rua Bela da Rainha, the Queen's Beautiful Street, before silver won.
One more detail: look at the rooftops. Between the buildings, the dividing walls rise above the roofs. Those are firewalls, there to stop flames from jumping from house to house, because in 1755 it was the fire, as much as the shaking, that destroyed the city. Now walk north up Rua dos Fanqueiros, straight and gently rising, all the way to a big open square with a king on horseback.