Padrão dos Descobrimentos

The Padrão was built in 1960 for the five-hundredth anniversary of Henry the Navigator's death, replacing a temporary version from the 1940 Exhibition of the Portuguese World. It is fifty-two metres of concrete and limestone shaped as a stylised caravel prow, with Henry at the head and thirty-two figures behind him - navigators, cartographers, missionaries, chroniclers, Camões, and Queen Philippa - all facing the river. It was a monument of the Estado Novo, built to serve a regime that was fighting colonial wars while presenting the empire as a civilising mission, and how Portugal should treat it is an active public argument: it presents the voyages as heroic and says nothing about slavery or conquest. A lift and stairs go to a viewing platform at the top, over the compass rose laid in the pavement below, a gift from South Africa in 1960.

What you actually see

• The prow - fifty-two metres of stone and concrete with thirty-two figures.
• The viewing platform - a lift and stairs to the top, over the river and Belém.
• The compass rose - the pavement mosaic below, given by South Africa in 1960.
• The context - an Estado Novo monument that omits slavery and conquest entirely.

When to go

Year-round. One hour including the platform. Queues build through the day; go early. Closed on some Mondays.

Honest expectations

Long queues for the lift in season. The monument's framing of the voyages is one-sided and the site offers little counterweight - worth knowing before you read the panels. Belém as a whole is extremely crowded. The waterfront is exposed and windy.

Nearby

The Jerónimos monastery is across the road; the Belém tower is a walk west.