Earthquake Museum

 And how did I never post anything about the Earthquake Museum? I've talked about the famous Lisbon earthquake of 1755 many times in various classes over the years, most recently in my Nature of Evil class in the fall. It inspired a poem from Voltaire., and, for that matter, Candide and his crew witness the earthquake in the novel Candide. Some philosophers propose that it was to philosophers of the 18th century what the Holocaust was to philosophers of the 20th century. That is, they are not claiming that the two events are close in regards to loss of life, obviously, but rather that they provided an existential threat to a worldview. That is, they were both events that thinkers had to address, in that you simply couldn't ignore them. The 18th century was dominated by the Enlightenment and the emphasis on reason, and the random nature of the earthquake, killing tens of thousands who were all in Church on All Saints Day, certainly spoke to the absence of God in daily life. I had wanted to visit it for a while, but in this particular case I was hoping, unrealistically, of leading one last student trip before my legs gave out entirely. Sadly, I had a heart scare (which turned out to be overrated), and I had to cancel the trip before it ever got off the ground. When you visit Lisbon a trip to the Earthquake Museum is definitely worth your time.

The museum does a pretty good job building the anticipation. Plus, well, it's a popular tourist stop, and they move you along pretty quickly.

It's pretty high tech jazzy, although this reminded me of the movie Tron.

There's a fair bit of scientific learning and quizzes. 

You get a sense of what Lisbon looked like pre-quake. The woman in the background is part of a sophisticated video of people walking in and out of the scene.

The high point of the experience is sitting in pews in a church as the earthquake hits, the jarring ride begins, which is synced up with the video.