Padrão dos Descobrimentos

Every documentary about Portugal begins with a pan over Henry the Navigator. A single misinterpretation.

Everyone knows it, everyone stands before it, and too many people for too little space. Hardly anyone can or wants to truly identify the 56-meter colossus; most people just take a few photos here, believing they are standing before a historical monument. An assessment that depends on what one defines as historical.

The idea of an ”Exhibition of the Portuguese World” was put forth by the Portuguese Ambassador in Belgium — presumably because he was aware of the problems with ”state property” in the Congo and wanted to suppress similar critical debates: what sounds like a folk festival is intended to popularize an intensified colonial policy. And to make that sound nicer, they spread the concept of ”Lusotropicalism” around the world: occupied territories become ”overseas provinces” culturally inseparable from the ”motherland” —  the ”Empire” now extends ”from Minho to Timor”. The goal is to establish a competitive global economic zone at the expense of colonial labor and resources.

The strategy was creatively translated in 1940 with a celebration of 300 years of independence from Spain. On the newly created ”Praça do Império,” colorful flowers were used to plant 32 provincial coats of arms on the lawn — along with the ”guest country” Brazil. And as if that weren’t silly enough, there is still debate today about whether these coats of arms should be mowed down.

 

Bélem around 1935: the sandy desert is known as ”Praia de Restelo.”

 

 

 

Other remnants of this ”Expo” include the restaurant on the small lake, the small pseudo lighthouse, and the ”Museo de Arte Popular” — the nucleus for the emerging art district here. The explorer monument itself, in its original form, was a plaster pavilion. Revival and expansion came in 1960 as a propaganda tool to justify the malodorous colonial policy. Officially, of course, not, as we celebrate 500 years of Henry the Navigator.

The fact that there can even be disputes over territories in Africa and Asia can be attributed to some of the figures depicted on the ”Padrão dos Descobrimentos” — precisely because they initially set a padrão everywhere. The term refers to a stone stele on which details of land acquisition are engraved to make Portugal’s and the Pope’s territorial claims ”legally secure”. It is reasonable to interpret Belém as a universally applicable super padrão, artistically designed as the prow of a caravel, with Henry as the figurehead.

The many people behind it are a not necessarily comprehensible mixture of politics and military, church and science. The presence of a lot of romanticism is evidenced, for example, by the depiction of Ferdinand Magellan, who is expelled from the Portuguese court before sailing around the world under the Spanish flag — and personally fails due to arrogance (he dies en route because he needlessly starts a fight with people from the South Seas). Another misinterpretation: the object is not located where Vasco da Gama drops anchor because the Tagus River in the 15th century must have been 100 meters wider. Perhaps also because da Gama starts at Terreiro do Paço. And no, the compass rose on the forecourt is not a work of Portuguese tile art, but a gift from apartheid-era South Africa in honor of Henry. Fun fact: the Portuguese ”discover” South Africa 30 years after Henry’s death.

 

Fernão Mendes Pinto is associated with Sesimbra through the experience of being robbed by pirates. More than 20 years later, he writes a travelogue about adventures in East Asia that are difficult to assess, reminiscent of Marco Polo. ”The Pilgrimage” becomes a bestseller, providing material for the series ”Shogun” and the film Peregrinação. It was shortlisted for an Oscar in 2017.

 

 

It is sad that some people still cling to the positive image of the Estado Novo, and not everyone thinks the release of the ”provinces” was a good idea. The Portuguese extreme right wing gladly uses the monument as a backdrop for advertising photos, while the other side advocates for its demolition. Nonsense, but a clarification would be nice. The same goes for the monument a few minutes away, the Monumento dos Combatentes do Ultramar, which has been a subject of dispute over the treatment of the past since its opening day.