From Brera to Lisbon: Skyscapes, Astronomical Observatories and Meridians

Abstract

It may seem like a pretext – and it is a pretext! – but the existence of the Brera Astronomical Observatory (1764) raises several questions of Italian-Portuguese scope: (1). the presence in Portugal of astronomers and mathematicians from the Society of Jesus, professors at one of the most qualified schools of European cosmography from the 17th-18th century – the Aula da Esfera, in Lisbon; (2). the leading role of Italian astronomers in the “golden” years of the reign of D. João V, in Portugal and in overseas territories, in the development of observation of the stars, in topography, terrestrial and cosmic geography and in the measurement of Time, be it, or not updated by the Copernican proposals; (3). and the memory of the oldest observatories in the kingdom of Portugal, contemporary with the notable Milanese scientific structure. The scope of marginalized architecture also arises here, serving as a reminder of multiple scientific achievements with repercussions on eighteenth-century architecture. Our aim is to reactivate these “places of memory”, some of them humble testimonies (the “meridian” of the Mafra Convent), others just narrated memories (the observatories of the Colégio de Santo Antão – today Hospital de S. José – or the observatory of the Paço da Ribeira, the Arsenal Cosmochronometro), others still brought to us with rigorous documentary vigor, although demolished or never built and giving rise to a work of crypto-history of architecture (as with the project of the large observatory of the University of Coimbra; then the small observatory that was “de facto” built and later demolished in the middle of the 20th century), others that still exist (such as the Tower-Observatory of Paço da Bemposta; the site of the Escola Politécnica Observatory; and Tapada da Ajuda Observatory) as a fleeting but real presence of those past times that our century must preserve and revive. A heritage challenge for our time.