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Space and Time Visualisation pp 151–171Cite as

Lost Cities in the Digital Era: The Case of Pre-Earthquake Lisbon

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Abstract

Lisbon was ruined by a major earthquake on November 1st, 1755. The seismic shocks, the tsunami, and the fire that followed massively destroyed its urban and architectural fabric, and its written and iconographic memory was seriously curtailed. There is a significant historiography on pre-earthquake Lisbon, particularly dating from the last 30 years. However, it was vital to convert this knowledge into a global outlook on the city which was lost. Virtual archaeology provided the necessary tools, from a technical and a methodological perspective. City and Spectacle: A Vision of Pre-Earthquake Lisbon was thus devised as a virtual re-creation/simulation of all the area of Lisbon destroyed by the 1755 earthquake and on which the new city was built. Developed at the Centre for Art History and Artistic Research (CHAIA), of the University of Évora, this project aims to re-create the physical, social, and cultural dimensions of Lisbon on the eve of the earthquake, through the use of Second Life®/OpenSimulator technology. The documentary sources available, either primary or secondary, are being tested in an interactive and immersive model and in a collaborative real-time environment, so as to give the project an innovative laboratory dimension. Also, the fact that users are able to interact with the model as well as with other users in realtime transforms the data itself and, as a result, the object of study. The Lisbon that is being re-created/simulated is not just a working hypothesis presented as a glimpse into the collective memory, but is also a means for contemporaneous fruition of this memory.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The book had two extended and fully revised editions in 1977 and 1983, respectively.

  2. 2.

    City and Spectacle: A Vision of Pre-Earthquake is being developed by a team of researchers from the Centre for Art History and Artistic Research (CHAIA), of the University of Évora, in partnership with the company Beta Technologies. See http://lisbon-pre-1755-earthquake.org/ and http://vimeo.com/lisbonpre1755.

  3. 3.

    Contemporary estimations of the death toll range from 10,000 to 100,000 people in Lisbon alone. The lack of reliable census or demographic records in Lisbon at the time and the instability that followed the earthquake make this information hard to ascertain. Today historians believe that between 10,000 and 20,000 people may have perished in Lisbon as a result of the 1755 earthquake.

  4. 4.

    On the 1755 earthquake see Sousa (1919–1932), Estorninho (1956): 198–233, Davison (1938), Boxer (1956):113–129, Kendrick (1956), Buescu and Cordeiro (2005), Araújo et al. (2007), and Murteira (2004).

  5. 5.

    On the nature of seventeenth century Portuguese architecture, see Kubler (1972).

  6. 6.

    The Tombo Pombalino is kept in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (Portuguese National Archives), in Lisbon. There is an abridged version of this survey, compiled in the nineteenth century by Valentim de Freitas, in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (National Library of Portugal).

  7. 7.

    See http://operadotejo.org/.

  8. 8.

    Auto de fé was the ritual of public punishment and execution of the condemned by the Inquisition.

  9. 9.

    There is a detailed description of the Royal Palace in the eighteenth century that was published in the nineteenth century by Camilo Castelo Branco, a renowned Portuguese writer. See Branco (1874). Noites de Insomnia offerecidas a quem não póde dormir. Porto: 10–11.

  10. 10.

    Zimmerman. The Past Is a Foreign Country at https://www.usd.edu/arts-and-sciences/upload/Harrington-Lecture-Zimmerman.pdf. Accessed 9 February 2015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Art History and Artistic Research (CHAIA), University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

    Helena Murteira & Paulo Simões Rodrigues

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  1. Helena Murteira
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  2. Paulo Simões Rodrigues
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Correspondence to Helena Murteira .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. "Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest, Romania

    Maria Boştenaru Dan

  2. Urban and Landscape Design, "Ion Mincu" University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest, Romania

    Cerasella Crăciun

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Murteira, H., Rodrigues, P.S. (2016). Lost Cities in the Digital Era: The Case of Pre-Earthquake Lisbon. In: Boştenaru Dan, M., Crăciun, C. (eds) Space and Time Visualisation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24942-1_10

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