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Paulo Ferreira | all galleries >> Galleries >> Bits of Lisbon > Peter IV?
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05-OCT-2007 © Paulo Ferreira

Peter IV?

This is the main square in Lisbon Praça D. Pedro IV aka Rossio. Peter IV was an enlightened monarch, one of the best worldwide only surpassed by John II. He established a parliementary monarchy after 1833 at the same time he was "sorting" Brazil as Peter I. Some years after his death the Members of Parliement decided to name the main square Rossio as Peter IV and put a column with his statue on top. When this idea occurred the French had been struggling in Mexico with their "Emperor" Maximilian who had a sad end (the French had their own Iraq 150 years ago). However somewhere in Paris there was now an unused and redundant statue of Maximilian (never got dispatched to Mexico City) which had some uncanny features of Peter IV. A delegation went to Paris and bought it at a very very good price. So we got a statue of Peter IV and Maximilian had some use after all. A truly case of political recycling!

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