The Belém Tower is a UNESCO World Heritage Site completed in 1514 to defend Lisbon from enemy ships, is one of Lisbon’s most striking monuments and the icon of a country historically moulded by its proximity to the ocean and its maritime discoveries of new worlds.

The Jerónimos Monastery, also a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome. It was erected in the early 1500s by King Manuel I to immortalise the memory of the Infante D. Henrique (Prince Henry the Navigator), the patron of Portuguese exploration.
In the church – which is free to visit – you can find the sepulchre of Vasco da Gama (Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea) and of Luís de Camões (famous poet who wrote the Portuguese national epic poem, Os Lusíadas, in honor of Vasco da Gama).

Located along the river where ships departed to explore and trade with India and the Orient, Monument of the Discoveries celebrates the Portuguese Age of Exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries. The design takes the form of the prow of a caravel (ship used in the early Portuguese exploration). On either side of the slab are ramps that join at the river’s edge, with the figure of Henry the Navigator on its edge. On either side of the Prince are 16 figures from the Portuguese Age of Exploration. 

The construction of the square in front of the monument was a gift from the South African Government : a 50-metre-diameter Compass Rose was executed using different types of limestone, including lioz, a rare type of beige limestone found only around Lisbon. It includes a Mappa Mundi that is 14 metres wide, showing the routes of Portuguese carracks and caravels during the Age of Exploration.