Monument to the Discoveries
Monumental stone prow on the Tagus, flanked by sculpted figures from Portugal's age of exploration.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Monument to the Discoveries in Lisbon opens with the compass rose set into the pavement, a 1960 gift from apartheid South Africa, then turns to Prince Henry the Navigator at the monument's prow and the cartography schools and expeditions he funded rather than sailed himself. It traces how Salazar's dictatorship commissioned the monument decades later, filling it with thirty-two carved figures of explorers, poets and missionaries. Look closely at who stands beside Henry, and who does not.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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