The Ópera do Tejo, inaugurated in 1755, lasted only a few months. On 1 November 1755, a huge earthquake, and resulting tsunami and fire destroyed the palace and most of Lisbon. The 70,000-volume royal library housed within the palace, as well as hundreds of works of art, were lost. The royal archives disappeared together with detailed historical records of explorations by Vasco da Gama and other early navigators. King Joseph I was not at the palace and survived. His Prime Minister, the 1st Marquis of Pombal, coordinated a massive reconstruction effort that would give rise to the Pombaline Downtown of Lisbon. The royal family abandoned the Ribeira area and moved to palaces in the areas of Ajuda and Belém.