Praça Marquês de Pombal: The Rebuilder on His Column
Why is it significant?
Find a safe spot at the edge of the huge roundabout and look up at the figure on top of the column: a man in an eighteenth-century wig and coat, his hand resting on a lion, gazing down the full length of the avenue toward the river and the city he rebuilt.
Key Facts
| Place | Praça Marquês de Pombal: The Rebuilder on His Column |
|---|---|
| Address | Praça Marquês de Pombal, 1250-096 Lisboa, Portugal |
| Geo Coordinates | 38.72530, -9.15000 |
| Part of Walk | Up the Avenida da Liberdade: Lisbon's Grand Boulevard from Restauradores to Parque Eduardo VII |
| Generated | Generated |
Find a safe spot at the edge of the huge roundabout and look up at the figure on top of the column: a man in an eighteenth-century wig and coat, his hand resting on a lion, gazing down the full length of the avenue toward the river and the city he rebuilt.
Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, made Marquis of Pombal in 1769, was the chief minister of King José the First, and the earthquake of 1 November 1755 made his name. While others blamed sin and prayed, he is credited with a blunt answer: bury the dead and care for the living. Whether or not he said it, he did it, and then he rebuilt the Baixa as one of the first planned city centres in Europe, with straight streets and buildings framed in timber cages designed to sway rather than fall.
He was also ruthless. He expelled the Jesuits in 1759. After an attempt on the king's life, he destroyed the noble Távora family with public executions that shocked Europe. In 1761 he banned the bringing of enslaved people into mainland Portugal, yet his trading companies kept shipping enslaved Africans to Brazil. When King José died in 1777, Pombal's enemies had him dismissed, put on trial and sent away from the court.
The monument took a long time to come. It was finally inaugurated in 1934, with figures and reliefs on its base recalling the disaster, the rebuilding of the city and his reforms of trade and education. The lion beside him is power, tamed and loyal. Like the man himself, the statue has been admired, argued over and never ignored.
Today this roundabout is the hinge of modern Lisbon. Football fans pour in here to celebrate titles, marches gather here, and the city of the twentieth century spreads out beyond it in every direction. Behind the statue a green slope rises steeply. Cross with care to the bottom of it: a park that, rather surprisingly, is named after an English king.