Lisbon McMission: Quake

Today we stepped back 260 years in time to November 1, 1755, to relive the earthquake that destroyed the Portuguese capital, which at the time was the fourth largest city in the world.

The new QUAKE Lisbon Earthquake Experience just opened. It's an interactive museum where you can go to relive history.

Lisbon was not only a city of 250,000 people but the capital of the Portuguese empire, which spread around the world. It was one of the most important cities in Europe. Although Portugal had been hit by quakes in the past it had been 200 years since the last major earthquake. The quake hit at 9:40 AM on All Souls Day. Many buildings collapsed, burying those inside and on the street outside. The quake triggered a tsunami, which arrived soon afterwards. As usual the first indication was that the water drew back from the land. Soon, however, the water came back with a wave estimated at 50 feet high crashing through the city. Ships, docks and buildings in the city were battered by the high seas. Thousands were swept away.

As if that wasn't enough, lamps and cooking fires upset in the tumult ignited and were impossible to control. It burned unchecked for three days, completing the destruction. In all more than 60,000 people died in the disaster in Lisbon alone. Thousands more died in other areas. The quake was felt throughout Western Europe and Northwestern Africa.

Many people thought that the quake was a result of an angry God responding to Lisbon's "sinful" ways. However, they were hard put to explain why one city was destroyed while others, just as "sinful" were spared. There were some, however, who studied the earthquake objectively, observing the direction of the shocks, sequence of events and other details to try to understand scientifically what was going on. In the end, the scope of the destruction was such that the country turned its attention to rebuilding Lisbon. Although nobody could replace what had been lost, the city rose again in beauty and grandeur.

We walked the streets of Lisbon before the quake.

We sat in the Church of São Nicolau, where we saw and felt what the earthquake must have been like, through video mapping and pews that moved as the earthquake increased in intensity and the building collapsed.