Things changed with the massive 1755 earthquake, in which a great part of the city was destroyed by the quake itself and the fire that followed. The situation was worsened by the fact that the All Saints Hospital was greatly damaged, and the surviving patients and wounded by the quake were housed in undamaged convents and palaces. The government of King Joseph I, headed by the Marquis of Pombal, quickly started rebuilding the Hospital, which was soon treating the ill again.