26/04/2008

#117 - Chiado Fire

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting



On August 25, 1988, a fire started in Carmo Street and quickly spread to Garrett Street and others, destroying a total of 18 buildings of the Chiado. Two people were killed, and 73 were injured (60 of them firemen). From 200 to 300 people lost their homes. Several of the historical shops were lost. In terms of the extent of the city affected and number of destroyed buildings, the Chiado fire is considered the worst disaster to strike the city since the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake.

A rebuilding project directed by Portuguese architect Siza Vieira has, to a great extent, returned the area to its former glory. The exterior look of the buildings were restored, while the interiors have been completely renovated.


Video

10 comments:

Kris McCracken said...

Great looking facades. It's good to see them so well maintained.

Anonymous said...

This is a great post! I love learning the history of your city, and the photos are fantastic .... especially the last one!! Stunning photo!

George Townboy said...

Uma Por Dia!! This is a beautiful post! I checked out the video also .. did you shoot that? It is fantastic that the city restored the building facades! A lot of cities would have just torn it all down and put up some c*ap in it's place.

Great shots!

Uma por Dia said...

Sometimes here they also torn buildings down and build others because of profit. sometimes not recovering the facades, when they can not bring down the old buildings just hope they fall for lack of maintenance.
George: I found the video on youtube. I'm trying to show the environment that lived on this street with the music that emanates from the old car.

George Townboy said...

Fantastic job ... you captured the flavor of the street in your photos and enhanced it with the video! Excellent!

ritasobczyk said...

Judging by the present outlook they did their best to restore it after the fire, because it looks great! I hope they supported victims, because in each catastrophy there are pople, who are the most important, not buildings.

Jane Hards Photography said...

Such a pretty facade to have such terrible damage. It is good to see that a plan to restore the buildings back to their former glory.

Daniel J Santos said...

Lembro-me perfeitamente de ver o incendio na televisão.

A reconstrução demorou, mas penso que foi bem conseguida.

Boas imagens, excelentes perspectivas.

 gmirage said...

Looking at it seem the fire didn't occur, sad when accidents happen no? Hope you're doing great there Maria! Greetings from Vienna! =)

Claudia said...

Parabéns pelo blog. Impecável.