Monument To The Discoveries And April 25th Bridge In Lisbon, Portugal Editorial Image

The April 25th Bridge, resembling San Francisco`s red Golden Gate Bridge, goes across the Tagus River estuary. Here it serves as the background for the Padrao dos Descobrimentos, or the Monument to the Discoveries, honoring the intrepid Portuguese explorers whose influence was vast, in Asia, Africa, and South America. More specifically, the monuments celebrates the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries when Portuguese ships set off from this spot to explore and trade with India, the Orient and the Americas. The romanticized idealized monument was dedicated in 1960, under the dictator Salazar, to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator. Among the 33 Portuguese notables sculpted near the bottom of the 52 meter structure are Henry the Navigator, Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Cabral, and King Alfonso V.