Monument to the Discoveries

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The Monument popularly known as “Monumento aos Navegantes”(Navigators Monument) or “Padrão dos Descobrimentos”

The monument has the shape of a stylized caravel, with the shield of Portugal on the sides and the sword of the Royal House of Avis on the entry. D. Henry the Navigator, stands at the bow, with a caravel hands. Descendants in two rows on each side of the monument, are statues of heroes linked to the Portuguese Discoveries. On the western face are the poet Camões, with a copy of The Lusiads, the painter Nuno Gonçalves with a palette as well as famous navigators, cartographers and kings.

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Here is the complete list of 33 personalities represented on the monument:

Infante Pedro, Duke of Coimbra (son of King John I of Portugal)
Philippa of Lancaster
Fernão Mendes Pinto (writer)
Frei Gonçalo de Carvalho
Frei Henrique Carvalho
Luís de Camões (the poet author of The Lusiads)
Nuno Gonçalves (painter)
Gomes Eanes de Zurara (chronicler)
Pero da Covilha (Furthermore, travelers)
Jehuda Cresques (cosmógrafo)
Pero Escobar (browser)
Pedro Nunes (mathematical)
Pero of Swindon (browser)
Gil Eanes (browser)
João Gonçalves Zarco (browser)
Fernando, the Infante Santo (son of King John I of Portugal)
Prince Henry the Navigator
Afonso V of Portugal
Vasco da Gama
Afonso Gonçalves Baldaia (browser)
Pedro Alvares Cabral (discoverer of Brazil)
Ferdinand Magellan
Nicolau Coelho (browser)
Gaspar Corte-Real (browser)
Martim Afonso de Sousa (browser)
João de Barros
Stephen da Gama (sea captain)
Bartolomeu Dias (discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope)
Diogo
António Abreu (browser)
Afonso de Albuquerque
St. Francis Xavier (mission)
Cristovao da Gama (captain)

The north of the monument a rose-of-winds of 50 meters in diameter, drawn on the ground, was a gift from South Africa in 1960. The central map, dotted galleons and mermaids, shows the routes of the discoverers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Inside the monument there is an elevator that goes up to the sixth floor, and a staircase that goes up to the top of which commands a beautiful panorama of Belém and the Tagus river. The basement is used for temporary exhibitions.
One of the most interesting prospects of the monument can be seen from the west, in the light of sunset.

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