At 9:30 a.m. on November 1, 1755, a significant portion of Lisbon's inhabitants was inside parish and conventual churches, observing All Saints' Day, a national holiday. The same was true for the Portuguese Royal Family – King Jospeh I, Queen Mariana Victoria, and their daughters – who were attending Mass at the Church of the Convent of Santa Maria de Belém, in Belém, near Lisbon. Suddenly, an earthquake, considered one of the deadliest in seismographic history, struck. Indeed, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 reached a magnitude between 8.7 and 9 on the Richter scale, and it is estimated that over 10,000 people lost their lives. The Royal Family escaped the catastrophe by being in Belém rather than the Paço da Ribeira, the center of Lisbon, which was destroyed further by a tsunami and several fires. In addition to the loss of lives, the country also lost a significant portion of its artistic-documentary heritage (the Paço da Ribeira and the Ducal Palace of the Dukes of Braganza on Rua do Alecrim), proving detrimental to the cultural history of the nation.The Lisbon earthquake also had an impact in Spain, particularly in the south, and the effects of the tsunami were felt around the world.