Shattered

It's not obvious that the cover picture is a symbol. Not until you see another picture

and realize that both feature the same building

even though one part of it is quite modern, while the other is a fine example of medieval Gothic. For some reason, the two structures right next to each other couldn't be more dissimilar - and the reason is, in fact, not exactly a mystery.

November 1, 1755 fell on a Saturday, and it was an All Saints' Day which is a major Christian holiday. Unsurprisingly, by 9:40 am, most Lisboeta/ Lisbonians were inside their churches, honouring and celebrating, when the ground throughout the city shook for the first time. Then it shook again... The earthquake lasted only several minutes but that was enough to see churches, among other building, fold like houses of cards. 30,000 to 40,000 people were killed in Lisbon alone, about half of that number - in the rest of the country. That event shattered the country and reimagined it for centuries to come in a variety of ways.

To start with, while obliterating many buildings, areas and whole towns, the catastrophe inexplicably spared some others - sometimes, right next to those ruined. The unique situation presented the authorities with a partial choice because, unlike the wreckage that had to be removed and rebuilt, the survivors could be left where they were, and incorporated into a new architectural reality. The solution was unusual but it had many practical and some cultural benefits that facilitated its adoption. That explains the phenomenon of the above pictures, as well as the fact that Braga, almost 400 kilometers to the North of Lisbon, looks completely modern, and nearby Guimaraes managed to preserve its quaint medieval appeal.

The cognitive shift that swept through all walks of Portuguese life, was even more striking. Many thousands dying in churches that were officially considered God's houses on Earth - and therefore the safest and most protected spaces on the planet - raised many unanswered questions and provoked an all-national outcry. In 1759, mere 4 years after the tragedy, the Society of Jesus was banned in Portugal, its members expelled from the country (some of them even arrested on what likely were trumped-up charges). Soon thereafter, most educational programs were overhauled, thus beginning the process of secularization in Portugal. The Age of Enlightenment seemed to have finally arrived but, ironically, the methods prompting its arrival weren't always enlightened.  

Changes do not just happen but rather they need an agent to catalyze them - and such agents often come with their own agenda. The agenda of one Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo, an obscure commoner-turned-a-high-ranked-politician, was clearly defined: to promote absolutism.

Carvalho e Melo, known as Marquis de Pombal since 1769, reached the height of his power soon after the 1755 catastrophe - and because of how he handled it. A skilled and ruthless administrator, he managed to rebuild the capital with such efficiency that the new building style was named after him - as well as a whole district in the city centre, Baixa Pombalina. Pombal's "know-hows" included a grid system with wider avenues, cage-like earthquake-resistant structures, and even rubble recycling. In other words, many new houses were made of the same bricks and other stones as the old ones they replaced - an approach that saved a lot of time and money. It was that wave of success that the then-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs rode to become King Joseph I's pet minister and obtain a carte blanche enabling him to challenge the mighty Jesuits, redesign educational programs to promote science at the expense of religion, and eventually to play a major role in every matter of state for the next 22 years. A one-king's minister, Pombal fell from grace in 1777, with the ascension to the throne of Queen Maria I, but his legacy kept modernizing Portugal and charting its course for decades, if not centuries, to come. An unspeakable tragedy combined with an authoritarian rules resulting in a stronger, abler country is yet another paradox of human history.