[PT]
"A designada Casa de Diogo Cão terá sido construída na segunda metade do século XV, já que segundo a tradição foi neste local que nasceu o famoso navegador transmontano que em 1482 descobriu a foz do rio Zaire. Possui uma traça que se enquadra na arquitectura civil edificada na vila na segunda metade do século XV e primeira metade do século XVI.
Com três registos, o primeiro apresenta uma portal em arco pleno, dando acesso ao piso térreo da casa, que serviria de armazém. Um arco de volta perfeita abre para a escadaria que dá acesso ao segundo registo, assentando em capitéis adossados às paredes laterais, o da direita com dois homens que seguram uma cartela, o da esquerda com um florão e boleados. À direita foram abertas duas janelas de sacada, com molduras de volta perfeita e varandim de madeira tipo rótula. O último registo do edifício é divido por três janelas de sacada, também com varandim igual ao do registo anterior, mas de moldura rectangular. Entre a janela da esquerda e as restantes foi aberto um postigo quadrado. O edifício é rematado por um friso. Um arco abatido, adossado ao nível do segundo registo, une o imóvel ao edifício contíguo. Lateralmente, ao nível do primeiro registo, a casa possui portais de volta perfeita de moldura simples. No segundo registo foram abertas diversas janelas com moldura rectangular encimada por arco contracurvado. No último registo foram abertas janelas de moldura rectangular simples."
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[EN]
"The designated Casa de Diogo Cão was built in the second half of the fifteenth century, it was here that the famous explorer, Diogo Cão was born, he discovered the mouth of the river Zaire in 1482. Having the house built in the village in the second half of the fifteenth century and first half of the sixteenth century. With three records, the first features arched portal, giving access to the ground floor of the house, which would serve as a warehouse. A round arch opens to the staircase that leads to the second record, settling in capitals that supported the side walls, the right with two men holding a cartouche, the left and rounded off with a garland. To the right were two open bay windows, with frames and perfect round wooden balcony type kneecap. The last record of the building is divided by three bay windows, balcony also the same as the previous record but a rectangular frame. Between the window left open and the other was a wicket square. The building is surmounted by a frieze. An arch, attached at the second record, joining the building adjacent to the property. Laterally, the level of first registration, the house has portals back perfect frame simple. In the second registration were open several windows with rectangular frame topped by arch contracurvado. On the last record were open windows simple rectangular frame."
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DIOGO CÃO"Diogo Cão was a Portuguese explorer and one of the most notable navigators of the Age of Discovery, who made two voyages sailing along the west coast of Africa to Namibia in the 1480s.
He was the first European known to sight and enter the Congo River and to explore the West African coast between Cape St. Catherine and Cape Cross, almost from the equator to Walvis Bay in Namibia.
First voyageWhen King John II of Portugal revived the work of Henry the Navigator, he sent out Cão (about midsummer 1482) to open up the African coast still further beyond the equator. The mouth and estuary of the Congo was now discovered (perhaps in August 1482), and marked by a Padrão, or stone pillar (still existing, but only in fragments) erected on Shark Point, attesting the sovereignty of Portugal; the great river was also ascended for a short distance, and intercourse was opened with the natives of the Bakongo kingdom. Cão then coasted down along the present Angola (Portuguese West Africa), and erected a second pillar, probably marking the termination of this voyage, at Cape Santa Maria (the Monte Negro of these first visitors). He certainly returned to Lisbon by the beginning of April 1484, when John II ennobled him, made him a cavaleiro (knight) of his household (he was already an escudeiro or esquire in the same), and granted him an annuity and a coat of arms (April 8, 1484 and April 14, 1484). In the return he discovered the Island of Annobón.
Second voyageThat Cão, on his second voyage of 1484-1486, was accompanied by Martin Behaim (as alleged on the latters Nuremberg globe of 1492) is very doubtful; but we know that the explorer revisited the Congo and erected two more pillars beyond the furthest of his previous voyage. The first at another Monte Negro, the second at Cape Cross. Cape Cross probably marking the end of his progress southward, advancing 1,400 kilometers. He raised the river Congo which he considered as the access road towards the realm of Prester John up to the neighborhood of the site of Matadi. There, in October or November, 1485, near the falls of Ielala, he left an inscription engraved on the stone which testifies of its passage and that of his men : "Aqui chegaram os navios do esclarecido rei D.João II de Portugal - Diogo Cão, Pero Anes, Pero da Costa." ("Here arrived the ships of king John II of Portugal – Diogo Cão, Pero Anes, Pero da Costa”.
According to one authority (a legend on the 1489 map of Henricus Martellus Germanus), Cão died off Cape Cross; but João de Barros and others wrote of his return to the Congo, and subsequent taking of a native envoy to Portugal. The four pillars set up by Cão on his two voyages have all been discovered in situ, and the inscriptions on two of them from Cape Santa Maria and Cape Cross, dated 1482 and 1485 respectively, are still to be read and have been printed; the Cape Cross padrão is now at Kiel (replaced on the spot by a granite facsimile); those from the Congo estuary and the more southerly Monte Negro are in the Museum of the Lisbon Geographical Society."
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