Monument to the Discoveries

1940: the Portuguese World Exhibition

The architect José Ângelo Cottinelli Telmo and the sculptor Leopoldo de Almeida designed the first Padrão in 1939 as a temporary beacon for the Portuguese World Exhibition that opened in Belém in June 1940, the Estado Novo's celebration of the nation's foundation in 1140 and its independence in 1640. The whole square in front of the Jerónimos Monastery was remade for the fair; the monument stood on the water's edge in plaster and mock stone, and was taken down when the exhibition closed. A padrão, in the Portuguese sense, is the stone pillar the navigators planted to claim a coast, and the shape — a caravel's prow with a sail behind it — is the exhibition's idea of that.

1958–1960: rebuilt for Henry the Navigator's fifth centenary

Between November 1958 and January 1960 the monument was rebuilt in concrete and rose-tinted Leiria stone, enlarged from the 1940 model, with the figures carved in limestone from the Sintra region, to mark five hundred years since the death of Infante Henry in 1460. Cottinelli Telmo had died in 1948; António Pardal Monteiro finished the architecture, Leopoldo de Almeida modelled the sculptures with Soares Branco and António Santos. It was inaugurated on 9 August 1960 and finished on 10 October, then passed to the port authority and, in 1962, on paper, to the city — which did nothing with it until 1985, when the interior was fitted out and opened.

The inscription on the river face reads, in Latin, 'to Prince Henry and the Portuguese who discovered the sea routes, 1460–1960'.

West ramp: the navigators and the men of the sea

Behind Henry on the west side, in order: Afonso V, the king who backed the African voyages; Vasco da Gama, who reached India in 1498; Afonso de Albuquerque, governor of the Indies; Bartolomeu Dias, who rounded the Cape in 1488; Diogo Cão, who reached the Congo; António de Abreu; Afonso Baldaia; Fernão Magalhães (Magellan), who sailed for Spain; Nicolau Coelho, da Gama's captain; Gaspar Corte-Real, lost off Newfoundland; Martim Afonso de Sousa, first governor of Brazil; João de Barros, the historian; Estêvão da Gama; Bartolomeu Perestrelo; Pedro Nunes, the mathematician of navigation, holding an armillary sphere; and Pêro de Alenquer, da Gama's pilot.

East ramp: the crown, the church and the pen

On the east side: Pedro of Coimbra, Henry's brother, holding a map; Philippa of Lancaster, their English mother, the only woman; Fernão Mendes Pinto, the traveller-memoirist; Gonçalo de Carvalho, a Dominican; Henrique de Coimbra, a Franciscan; Luís de Camões, holding The Lusiads; Nuno Gonçalves, the painter, with a palette; Gomes Eanes de Zurara, the chronicler; Pêro da Covilhã, who reached India overland; Jácome de Maiorca, the cartographer; Pedro Escobar; Pedro Álvares Cabral, who reached Brazil in 1500; Gil Eanes, who passed Cape Bojador in 1434; Fernando the Holy Prince, Henry's brother who died in Moroccan captivity; João Gonçalves Zarco, discoverer of Madeira; and, kneeling at the back, Ferdinand, the other brother of Henry — a figure guides sometimes mislabel. The monument's own guide sheet inside settles any dispute; we have followed it.

The entrance is on the landward side, under the sail. The ticket covers three things. First, the lift — with a stair beside it for the last flight — to the open terrace on top, about 50 metres above the pavement (the monument does not print a height on its visit page; sources give 52 to 56 metres, and we print neither as fact). From the terrace you look down onto the compass rose, west along the river to the Belém Tower, across to the 25 de Abril bridge and the Cristo Rei, and north over the whole length of the monastery's façade, the one angle from which its plan makes sense. Second, the exhibition halls on the two lower levels, which show temporary exhibitions on the Discoveries and their consequences. Third, the film in the 101-seat auditorium, a short piece on the history of Lisbon.

How long: the lift queue plus ten minutes on top plus twenty in the halls is 30 to 45 minutes. Is it worth it? For the terrace, yes, and more so than the tower's terrace if you can only do one climb: this one has a lift, a wider platform and the better view of the monastery. The exhibition depends on what is on; the official site lists the current one.

In the pavement between the monument and the road is the Rosa-dos-Ventos, a compass rose 50 metres across in different limestones, with a 14-metre mappa mundi at its centre showing the routes of the carracks and caravels with the dates of each landfall. It was designed by the architect Cristino da Silva and given by the South African government in 1960. Read it from the ground and you will not see the pattern; the point of the €10 is to read it from the top.

Stand at the edge of the rose in the last hour before sunset in summer, when the sun is behind the monument, and the prow is in silhouette against the water — that is the photograph the postcards use, and it is taken from the free side.

The lead-in above names the source; the table is the fare card. Hours: 10:00–19:00 every day from March to September with last entry at 18:30; 10:00–18:00 from October to February with last entry at 17:30. Closed only on 1 January, 1 May, 24, 25 and 31 December.

No family ticket is printed. The Monday opening is the practical point: a Monday in Belém has the monument, the MAAT, the Coach Museum's closed day too, so the monument and the pastry shop are what remain.

The monument stands on the river side of Avenida Brasília and the railway, directly opposite the monastery square. From the Jerónimos Monastery or the tram 15E stop at Mosteiro Jerónimos, walk south across Praça do Império and take the pedestrian underpass beneath the road and the tracks; it surfaces beside the compass rose. From Belém station on the CP Cascais line it is a five-minute walk west along the water.

From the Belém Tower it is ten minutes east along the riverside path. Tram 15E costs €3.30 onboard or €1.72 with zapping and is in the €7.25 day ticket; the getting around page explains the card. The Belém page draws every route on one map.

It sits between the monastery and the tower, so it is the natural middle of a Belém morning: Jerónimos cloister at 09:30, church at 10:30, Pastéis de Belém at 11:15, under the road to the monument by noon, up the lift, then west along the river for a Belém Tower slot at 13:00. For the photograph, come back in the last hour of light instead, when the terrace is quieter and the prow is backlit. On a Monday it anchors the day on its own with the MAAT and the pastry shop.

The one-day itinerary and the Belém page place it with walking minutes.