Lost Cities as a Virtual Experience: The exemple of pre-earthquake Lisbon

Abstract

e study of a lost city is always a great challenge. e city of Lisbon that was de- stroyed by the 1755 earthquake is more than a distant memory. In fact, we are main- ly in the presence of an absent memory, because it disappeared abruptly, leaving few records of its former existence. Evidently, it is vaguely present in the districts around the castle, which were rebuilt outside of the adopted reconstruction plan. It is also perceptible through the existing fragmented and dispersed documents that survived the earthquake and Lisbon’s subsequent history. However, the city centre that disappeared on 1 November 1755 was more than a vague collection of buildings, streets and alleys reminiscent of an extended past. It was a long-standing memory, consubstantiated in a lived urban and architectural setting that connected past and present. As such, it was able to generate, as all living cities are, a dialectic relationship between its material and social dimensions. e long and signi cant historiography of pre-earthquake Lisbon has been shedding some light on this lost urban reality. However, it fails to clearly reveal its all-encompassing character and to enable a visual outlook of the city as a whole.