Praça do Commercio
In going over the city it is surprising to note the number of public buildings, institutions, open spaces, quays and markets that owe their existence to the Marquis de Pombal.
From Lisbon and Cintra by A. Cunneck, 1907.
The story of the great earthquake and the reconstruction period throws a new light on the Praça do Commercio and the lay-out of the lower town. The general style of architecture seen in the square, and in the high houses with dormer windows of the streets beyond, is known as the Pombaline. In going over the city it is surprising to note the number of public buildings, institutions, open spaces, quays and markets that owe their existence to the Marquis de Pombal. The finest monument in the city was due to his desire to raise one that would worthily transmit his name to posterity. To bronze and not to man he wished to entrust his fame.
The statue was to be erected to the King, and Pombal’s portrait in a medallion placed somewhere upon the monument. No foreigner was to put his hand to the work. Bartholomeu da Costa was given the work to do after the model of another Portuguese artist named Joaquim Machado de Castro. The casting of the statue was finished in eight minutes, and so successfully that it was reckoned a triumph for Bartholomeu da Costa by opinions abroad as well as at home. He was awarded military honours for his success, and became in due time Brigadier-General, Governor of the Arsenal, and director of the iron and coal mines, a rare example, says a noted commentator, of a great fortune founded upon the recognition of talents.
The transport of the statue, when finished, to the great square of the Commercio, lasted several days, so great was the difficulty of moving it. Poised on a marble pedestal with an elliptical base the bronze effigy of King Jose on horseback still faces the Tagus. On the side turned to the city is an allegorical bas-relief symbolizing Virtue, Commerce, Agriculture and a humane Providence guiding the city of Lisbon, supported by the figure of the State. Fame and Triumph are symbolized in groups, sculptured in stone on the sides of the pedestal.
It was a great day for Lisbon when that statue was unveiled by the Marquis de Pombal. The inauguration took place on the King’s birthday with great pomp. The people knelt and saluted their King’s image with shouts of wonder and delight. Public rejoicings lasted for three days, illuminations, fire-works and triumphal arches making the city gay, while a feast was held for the nobility and diplomatic corps, in which the Marquis took prominent part.
Sunset approached as I tried to picture in imagination that festive day of the great Statesman’s triumph. The vast square was half in shadow, the horse and rider of bronze showed a pallid grey-green colour. The remainder of the houses were flushed from the brilliant reflection of sunset as though built of pink marble. The piled buildings on the hill above showed strongly contrasted colouring of deep blue shadows surmounted by rose. The river was a broad lake of milky blue, with bands of white light edging both shores. The hills across the water were veiled in gold and rosy haze.
The shadows dropped quickly, as they always do in this Southern city after the culminating glory of the day. So after that heydey of acknowledged fame the deep shadow of royal disfavour dropped swiftly upon Carvalho, Marquis de Pombal. The King died, and the Queen, D. Maria I, ordered the Minister’s portrait to be removed from the front of the pedestal. The void remained until the reign of D. Pedro IV, who recognized that the medallion was as much the complement of the statue as the statesman had been of the reign of D. Jose. There are tardy subscriptions being raised to-day to erect a monument worthy of the great man’s memory.
According to Pombal’s scheme for the commercial area of the new town, every trade or craft was to be restricted to a separate street. The names survive popularly to remind one where once hung out the signs of the gold and silversmiths, the linen drapers, the gilders, the silk mercers and shoemakers. Such fine-sounding names as Rua da Princeza, Bella da Rainha and Rua Augusta have in several cases ousted the older significant names.
The Triumphal Arch was planned as an additional beauty to the square in 1775 on a more important scale than it was finally finished in about forty years ago. The group ornamenting the arch represents Glory crowning Virtue and Valour. The statues below and at the sides are of Viriato, Nuno Alvares Pereira, Vasco da Gama, and the Marquis of Pombal.
Straight as a line the streets run back from the Praça to the heart of the city. Through the streets which cut across them at an equal regularity are seen at both ends bright vistas of sunlit houses in terraces and blocks piled up at every conceivable angle on the steep hill sides and cliffs. The pavements are pleasant to walk upon and pretty to look at, composed as they are of a mosaic of black and grey stones carefully laid down. The value of time in Portugal can be measured by watching the repairing process of a piece of side walk. The workman—and perhaps a companion or two—squats on the ground, mallet in hand, a pile of stones beside him. From these he selects now a black, now a grey stone with deliberation, and hammers each separately into the pattern for which, like an Eastern weaver, he seems to need no guide nor measurement.
Inchbold, A. Cunneck. Lisbon and Cintra: With Some Account of Other Cities and Historical Sites in Portugal. Chatto and Windus, 1907.
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