Padrão dos Descobrimentos Audio Guide

Padrão dos Descobrimentos: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Padrão dos Descobrimentos

   Welcome to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, the Monument to the Discoveries. You are standing on the northern bank of the Tagus estuary, in the Belém district of Lisbon, and in front of you a huge stone shape leans toward the water like the prow of a ship. That is no accident. The whole monument is designed to look like a vessel setting out to sea, carrying a crew of figures from Portugal's age of exploration. Look up and you will see Henry the Navigator at the very front, holding a model of a caravel. Behind him, along two rising ramps, a procession of people follows, as if everyone has gathered on the quayside to sail together. Some of them are navigators, some warriors, friars, scientists and artists. Over the next few minutes we will look at how this monument began as a temporary showpiece, how it was rebuilt in concrete and stone, who stands on those ramps, and what you can discover at its foot and on its viewing level. Let's start by looking at it as a whole.

2. 02

   From Temporary Showpiece to Permanent Monument

   The monument you see today has an earlier version. In 1940 Portugal staged the Portuguese World Exhibition, and for it the architect Cottinelli Telmo and the sculptor Leopoldo de Almeida created a monument in a temporary form, built from perishable materials. It stood about 50 meters tall in the Praça do Império, with a light structure of iron and cement. It was made to last for the fair, not for generations. The idea of a lasting version grew later. Construction work on the permanent monument began in November 1958 and was practically finished by January 1960. It was inaugurated on the tenth of August, 1960, 20 years after the first one appeared. The design followed the same vision, but this time it was built to stay. The two men behind it are worth remembering. Cottinelli Telmo, who lived from 1897 to 1948, was the architect. Leopoldo de Almeida, who lived from 1898 to 1975, was the sculptor. Telmo died more than a decade before the permanent monument was inaugurated, so the version you see stands as a continuation of a design first imagined for that 1940 fair.

3. 03

   A Ship Carved in Concrete

   At first glance the monument looks like a stack of separate sculpted blocks. In truth, it is a single piece. Its resistant structure is made entirely of reinforced concrete, and together with its stone facing it forms one monolith. The stability studies were carried out by Professor Engineer Edgar Cardoso. The numbers help you picture the scale. The monument rises 50 meters above the ground. At its widest it measures 20 meters across, and at its longest 46 meters. It occupies an area of 695 square meters. And because it stands beside a great river, it needed deep foundations: the piles go down an average of 20 meters. That shape, once you notice it, is hard to unsee. The configuration suggests the prow of a ship cutting through the sea, and the monument is placed on the axis of Belém's square, right beside the Tagus. Walk around it and watch the profile change. From the side, the ramps rise like a sail catching the wind, which is exactly the feeling its creators wanted you to have.

4. 04

   The Crew on the Ramps

   Now let's meet the crew. At the top stands Infante Dom Henrique, Henry the Navigator, gazing out over the Tagus with a model of a caravel in his hands. He is the largest figure on the monument, at about 9 meters tall. Behind him, in two descending rows along the ramps, stand 32 notable figures linked to the Discoveries: navigators, warriors, friars, scientists and men of culture. Among them you can pick out people from other walks of life. The painter Nuno Gonçalves is there holding a palette. The poet Camões holds a copy of his epic, Os Lusíadas. Their inclusion tells you that this is not only a monument to sailors but to the culture surrounding the voyages. Historians trace the inspiration for the figures to the historic polyptych of Nuno Gonçalves, a famous Portuguese painting of grouped figures, and to the austere classicism of Francisco Franco's 1927 monument to Gonçalves Zarco in Funchal. Leopoldo de Almeida followed that classical approach faithfully. As you look from figure to figure, notice how each one is posed as part of a shared purpose, all facing the river together.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   There is more to this place than the view from the pavement. At the foot of the monument, a large marble wind rose is set into the ground, a gift from South Africa. At its center, a map traces the routes followed by Portuguese explorers during the Age of Discovery. It is worth standing on it for a moment and following those lines with your eyes, before looking up again at the ship above you. Inside, an exhibition space hosts cultural events and exhibitions related to Portuguese history and culture. A cultural centre was completed in 1985, opening public access to the top of the structure, with an observation deck, an auditorium and a hall for exhibitions. From up there you look out over the Tagus, the same river the figures are facing. Since April 2003 the monument has been managed by the public company Gestão de Equipamentos e Animação Cultural. To get here, trams and buses stop near Belém Tower, and from there it is a short walk. Take your time, circle the monument slowly, and see which figure on the ramps catches your eye first.