LISBON IN THE 17TH CENTURY: Space illustration

Abstract

Pombal reconstructed Lisbon according to his ideal of city. Rationalized, regular and geometrical, the Portuguese Capital became the reality dreamed by the Marquis. The Portuguese Minister transfered the political action to the urban order, combating the archaism that had dominated the Portuguese society.

Lisbon had its mythical origins in Ulysses that, after the destruction of Troy, founded the city of Olíssipo - deriving from later in Lisbon. Fernando Pessoa rescued this founding myth of the city in his poem Ulysses:

"Myth is the nothing that is all

Thesame sun that opens the heavens

Is a bright and silent myth

The dead body of God,

Alive and naked"