Here was the “Egyptian Forest”. The noble houses Cruz Alagoa. Experiences and residents of an old street in Lisbon (1757-1967)

Abstract

After the 1755 Earthquake in Lisbon it was necessary to rebuild a very damaged town. Many businessmen of humble origin, though enriched by the protection of the Marquis of Pombal, took advantage to build their new homes, with some vanity and aristocratic pretensions. They wanted to emulate the old nobility, whose palaces had been ruined. It was the case of José Francisco da Cruz, one of the three Cruz brothers who jointly held one of the largest commercial monopolies at the time like the Tobacco Rent and they made an important fortune. He was the son of a former joiner, but after a well succeed cursus honorum he became the 1st Majorat of Alagoa with a new family name, given to him by the King added with a coat of arms (1765), and the title of treasurer general of the royal treasury of Portugal, H.M. Councillor, among other honors. In 1757 he built casas nobres Cruz (Alagoa), near the Church of S. Mamede, in a street renamed often. After his death the heirs quarrelled, and the new residents of the “manor” changed many times in the early years of the 19th century and half of the next one. Their lives and personality reveal a few surprises.