Largo Portas do Sol

Albeit a popular place for tourists to click pictures from, with it being a terrace view that opens up to the river Tagus and a skyline pockmarked by brown-tiled roofs, it is also a vantage point for us to observe the old town of Alfama in all its historic splendor. A few centuries back, Alfama was the district that held the city’s downtrodden and the brothels, being segmented away from the economically well-off civilians who lived closer to the city center.
But everything changed in 1755, when an earthquake struck Lisbon one morning, followed by fires and a tsunami, wrecking the city and killing nearly 100,000 people. Ironically, Alfama which was then widely considered as a place of sin, was one of the few districts that remained standing – confounding the common folk, and challenging the beliefs of the pious. This led to philosophers writing about theodicy, with it being one of the earliest such recorded instances – as to why a good God would allow a place of sin to stand while punishing the morally upright city dwellers.
The earthquake went on to be an impetus for philosophers and men of science to try understanding the reason behind earthquakes, with the work on its aftermath laying the foundation for modern seismology. Though Lisbon was rebuilt entirely after this horrible episode, a portion of Alfama was left untouched in remembrance, which you can explore if you trace your way back from Portas do Sol.