1755 Lisbon earthquake a benevolent deity. The Lisbon disaster provided a counterexample. As Theodor Adorno wrote, "[t]he earthquake of Lisbon sufficed to cure Voltaire of the theodicy of Leibniz" ("Negative Dialectics" 361). In the later twentieth century, the 1755 earthquake has sometimes been compared to the Holocaust as a catastrophe that transformed European culture and philosophy. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was also influenced by the devastation following the earthquake, whose severity he believed was due to too many people living within the close quarters of the city. Rousseau used the earthquake as an argument against cities as part of his desire for a more naturalistic
1802 Vrancea earthquake collapse. Numerous fires broke out, mainly from overturned stoves. In the Ottoman Empire (today's Bulgaria), the cities of Ruse, Varna and Vidin were almost completely destroyed. The force of the earthquake cracked walls as far north as Moscow. The main quake was followed by a series of aftershocks, of which the largest had a magnitude of 5.5. The main shock hit Bucharest between noon and 1 p.m. The earthquake was felt for about 10 minutes and was so violent that all chimneys in the city collapsed. Numerous historical monuments were destroyed, including St. Nicholas Church, Cotroceni Monastery and the 54-meter-high