Mathematics and geometry in Lisbon's Baixa district: checking influences from Valletta. A study on the street widths

António Ricardo da Costa, João Véstia and Jorge Gonçalves

Journal of Urban Design, 2015, vol. 20, issue 5, 636-657

Abstract: The rebuilding of Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755 is one of the most important urban developments in eighteenth-century Western Europe. The reconstruction of the city gave the Marquis of Pombal the opportunity to impose political ideas that affirmed enlightened rationalism. Strongly influenced by the humanism of preceding centuries, the Reconstruction Plan presents complex geometries in which mathematics and urban design go hand-in-hand. This paper raises the hypothesis that the layout of Baixa Pombalina was based on the application of mathematical algorithms that were also identified by Jäger in the plans for Valletta, built 200 years previously, thus restating the humanist feeling of Lisbon's reconstruction. Establishing the existence of a mathematic rule in the urban grid of the Baixa Pombalina proves its humanistic sense and ascertains that the plan searches for the accomplishment of a humanistic ideal world.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1080/13574809.2015.1071648

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