Torre de Belém & Padrão dos Descobrimentos — Age of Discovery Heritage, Lisbon

About This Activity

The Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries) at Belém, opened in 1960, depicts Henry the Navigator at the prow of a ship flanked by navigators, cartographers, and missionaries — the founders of Portugal's global diaspora. A rooftop viewing platform looks out over the Tagus estuary, the very waterway from which Vasco da Gama and Cabral departed. For families of Brazilian, Angolan, Mozambican, Cape Verdean, or Goan heritage, this is the ancestral departure point. The Jerónimos Monastery nearby where sailors received final blessings completes the picture. Monument admission €10; tower €6.

Seasonal note: Year-round; summer queues — arrive early