Located on the Rua Augusta Arch near the waterfront, this sculpture of Vasco da Gama depicts him as a middle-aged man. It appears to be life-sized. The standing figure wears a long coat over a tunic, pantaloons and boots. He has a heavy beard and a beret-type hat. His right hand holds the hilt of a sword and his left points a finger onto a map. A cross and rope are at his feet and perhaps a globe by his side and perhaps the tip of a cannon on his right side.
Wikipedia's article for the Arch (
visit link) identifies the figures and indicates the artist is Victor Bastosbut does not provide a date...although the arch was completed in 1873.
Wikipedia (
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"Dom Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, ... (c. 1460s – 23 December 1524) was a Portuguese explorer. He was the first European to reach India by sea, linking for the first time Europe and Asia by ocean route, as well as the Atlantic and the Indian oceans entirely and definitively, and in this way, the West and the Orient.
This discovery was significant and opened the way for a age of global imperialism and for the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting colonial empire in Asia. The route meant that the Portuguese would not need to cross the highly disputed Mediterranean nor the dangerous Arabian Peninsula, and that the whole voyage would be made by sea. The sum of the outward and return voyages made this expedition the longest ocean voyage in World history made until then, far superior in distance to a full voyage around the World by the Equator.
One century later after the discovery, European powers such as England, Netherlands and France, were finally able to challenge and break Portugal's monopoly and naval supremacy in the Cape Route around Africa, Indian ocean and in the Far East, opening a new wave and a new era of European imperialism in the East.
After decades of sailors trying to reach the Indies with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks and attacks, Gama landed in Calicut on 20 May 1498. Reaching the legendary Indian spice routes unopposed helped the Portuguese Empire improve its economy that, until Gama, was mainly based on trades along Northern and coastal West Africa. These spices were mostly pepper and cinnamon at first, but soon included other products, all new to Europe which led to a commercial monopoly for several decades.
Gama headed two of the armadas destined for India, the first and the fourth, the biggest armada, only four years after his arrival from the first one. For his contributions he was named in 1524 as the Governor of India, under the title of Viceroy, and given the newly created County of Vidigueira in 1519. Numerous homages have been made worldwide in Vasco da Gama's honour for his explorations and accomplishments. He remains a leading exploration figure to this day. The Portuguese national epic, Os Lusíadas, was written to celebrate Vasco da Gama. His first trip to India is widely considered a pinnacle of world history as it marked the beginning of the first wave of global multiculturalism."