Welcome to La Cometa Travel
Today we're in the capital of Portugal, Lisbon
As you can see, it's a very beautiful city
But if you come here one thing will here a lot about is the earthquake of 1755
It was such a big earthquake that is was the inspiration for the science of seismology
The science of studying earthquakes
The earthquake happened on November 1st
And if you're Catholic you know that this is All Saints' Day
And that year All Saints' Day was on a Sunday
So it was already important and since it happened to be on a Sunday it was that much more important
Everyone was in the churches for mass when the earthquake happened
And... the roofs of the churches collapsed
Almost everyone that died in the earthquake was crushed by the roofs of their churches
And since Lisbon is on the coast...
About one hour, or 45 minutes after the earthquake a tsunami hit
Which did even more damage to the city
And since it was All Saints' Day the churches were full of candles
More candles than normal
This caused a fire to happen
The fire burned the city for five days
That must have been horrible, I can't imagine living through something like that
In just one day!
You have an earthquake so big that it inspired a new kind of science
A tsunami and a fire
It is said that 90, almost 90% of the city was destroyed
They say there are two Lisbons and it is true
Because the city you can see now is totally different...
from the city would see before November 1, 1755
There is a lot to see here. One site you can't miss is Sao Jorge Castle
The castle has a history of more than 1000 years and is built on the highest point in the city
It also has amazing views of all of Lisbon
But for me, the stars, and the main reason to visit, are the peacocks that live in the castle
We saw at least 20 of them and were lucky enough to see several of them spreading their feathers
I've seen many peacocks, but never spreading their feathers, and definitely not 4 of them doing it
No visit to Lisbon is complete without riding on the tram
The most famous is the 28 which passes by many tourist sites
The 28 is always full of tourists but there are other lines you can ride that go through less touristy neighborhoods
You also need to see Belem Tower, one of the best examples of the Manueline architectural style
And an important symbol of the Age of Discovery
Now we're in front of one of the most important places in the country
It's the Jeronimos Monastery in Belem
This is a Portuguese style of architecture
It's called Manueline and if you look at it it looks gothic
But since Portugal was a maritime power it also has themes from the sea
Such as ropes and knots
And you will even see exotic animals they discovered while conquering the world
Like Rhinoceros, for example
It's called Manueline because it was created by King Manuel I
He is also known as Manuel the Fortunate
And he was very fortunate for two huge reasons
The first is that he never should have been king
He wasn't the oldest son of the previous king
He wasn't the 2nd oldest or even the 3rd oldest... He wasn't even the son of the king
He was the 6th son of king's cousin!
So for someone like him it should have been pretty much impossible to be king
The second reason is that he happened to be king when Vasca da Gama discovered the sea route to India
They could trade in India without having to use land routes that were controlled by other countries
This made Portugal the richest most powerful country in the world
So think about that...
He was just some guy that was lucky to be king
And by luck he was king when the route to India was finally discovered
He basically won the lottery twice
He really deserves the nickname 'the Fortunate'
Oh, and one more thing. He was also king when Brazil was discovered
Very, very fortunate
We're going to finish our trip around Lisbon here
Don't forget to like and share the video
And I'll see you next time from another part of the world