Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries)
Located near the historic Belem Tower and the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos in Belem in the west of Lisbon, the Monument to the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos) was built as a memorial to Portugal's Age of Discoveries, when Portuguese seafarers and explorers were some of the first westerners to sail the globe. The monument is the work of architect Cottinelli Telmo and sculptor Leopoldo de Almeida who conceived of the structure as a temporary beacon for the Portuguese World Fair in 1940.
The 52m-high concrete monument was inaugurated in 1960 to commemorate the five centuries since the death of Prince Henry The Navigator, the driving force behind his country's golden age of world expansion.
The monument is shaped like a stylized caravel - the sailing ship of the time that revolutionized maritime exploration. Henry is the leading figure carved on the monument followed by Vasco da Gama, Diogo Cão, Fernão de Magalhães, Luis Vaz de Camoes, Nuno Gonçalves, Pedro Álvares Cabral, the discoverer of Brazil and other Portuguese greats such as poets, scientists, missionaries and the mathematician Pedro Nunes.
There are excellent views over the River Tagus and Belem from the top of the monument reached by a lift.
Inside is an audiovisual display of Portugal and Lisbon's history.
The space in front of the monument has a Wind Rose and a mosaic map marking the main routes of the Portuguese Discoveries, which was a present from South Africa.
Monument to the Discoveries (www.egeac.pt)
Avenida de Brasilia
1400-038 Lisboa
Tel: 21 3031 950
Buses: #28, #714, #727, #729 or #751. Tram: #15 from Cais do Sodre; From Cascais or Cais do Sodre on the Cascais Line get out at Belém station; Ferry: From Porto Brandaõ and Trafaria on the south side of the River Tagus to Estação Fluvial de Belém or take the Linha Cascais train from Cais de Sodre to Belem
Hours: October to April from 10 am - 6 pm;
May to September from 10 am - 7 pm
Admission: 2.50 Euros; 30% reduction to enter with Lisboa Card
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