Marquis of Pombal Square
| Marquis of Pombal Square | |
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 View of the Praça Marquês de Pombal |
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| place | Lisbon |
The Praça Marquês de Pombal [ ˈpɾasɐ mɐɾˈkeʃ dɯ põˈbaɫ ] is a square in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon , located between Avenida da Liberdade and Parque Eduardo VII .
In the middle of the square is a statue of the first Marquis of Pombal, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo , inaugurated in 1934 , after whom the square itself is named. The column is 36 meters high, the statue on it is nine meters high. In addition to Avenida da Liberdade to the city center, Avenida Duque de Loulé (east), Avenida Fontes Perreira de Melo (northeast), Avenida Joaquim António de Aguiar (northwest) and Rua Braacamp (west) also lead from the square. Among other things, the decisive events for the proclamation of the First Portuguese Republic on October 5, 1910 took place in the square .
With the construction of Avenida da Liberdade after the earthquake of 1755 , there was now the possibility of expanding the city further north. In order to let the Avenida da Liberdade end in an appropriate way and at the same time to allow possibilities for branching in the different directions, the incumbent Prime Minister and city planner Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo , the Marquês de Pombal, decided to create a new urban square. Initially, the square had the simple name Rotunda , in English roughly "round square".
In 1882 there was a proposal by the population to honor the Marquês de Pombal in Lisbon's daily life, so it was decided to erect a monument to him. Due to some financial and political problems, the Lisbon city government did not start this project until 1914. The foundation was established in 1917, but the bronze statue was only inaugurated 17 years later, on May 13, 1934, by President António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona . The delay was due to the fact that the original artist Francisco dos Santos died, so that the two artists José Simões de Almeida and Leopoldo Neves de Almeida completed the work.
At the foot of the monument are allegories of the political reforms carried out by the first Marquês of Pombal. The figures opposite represent the University of Coimbra , where he founded a new faculty of science, the broken stones are said to be a reference to the earthquake of 1755. On the upper part of the base, important people from the time of the Marquês of Pombal are engraved, for example the architect Eugénio dos Santos and the sculptor Joaquim Machado de Castro . The coat of arms of Lisbon can be seen on the cobbled square itself.
Below the square is the metro station of the same name for the Lisbon Metro , where the yellow and blue lines meet.
Coordinates: 38 ° 43 ′ 31 ″ N , 9 ° 9 ′ 0 ″ W.