João de Castro - Lisboa, Portugal - Coats of Arms on Waymarking.com

João de Castro´s Coat of Arms is composed by columns with 3 blue balls each on a grey shield.
The coat of arms is placed in a magestic fountain in Belem (Fonte Luminosa)in front of Jerónimos Monastery together with 49 other coat of arms of important personalities from the time of Portuguese Discoveries. The fountain was designed by Cottinelli Telmo and built in 1940 for the Portuguese World Exhibition. There´s very little information about the fountain and the Coat of Arms and most available information pretend that there is a total of 32 Coat of arms of Portuguese inland and Overseas provinces wich is wrong.




"João de Castro (February 7, 1500 – June 6, 1548) was a Portuguese naval officer and fourth viceroy of Portuguese India. He was called Castro Forte ("Strong Castro") by poet Luís de Camões. Castro was the son of Álvaro de Castro, civil governor of Lisbon. His wife was Leonor de Coutinho.

A younger son, and destined therefore for the church, he became at an early age a brilliant humanist, and studied mathematics under Pedro Nunes, in company with Louis, Duke of Beja, son of king Manuel I of Portugal, with whom he contracted a lifelong friendship. At eighteen he went to Tangier, where he was dubbed knight by Dom Duarte de Menezes the governor, and there he remained several years.

In 1535 he accompanied Dom Louis to the siege of Tunis, where he had the honor of refusing knighthood and reward at the hands of the great emperor Charles V. Returning to Lisbon, he received from the king the small commandership of São Paulo de Salvaterra in 1538.

Soon after this he left for India in company with his uncle Garcia de Noronha, and on his arrival at Goa went off for the relief of Diu. In 1540 he served on an expedition to Suez under Estêvão da Gama (the son of Vasco da Gama and them viceroy of Portuguese India), by whom his son, Álvaro de Castro, a child of thirteen, was knighted, out of compliment to him. Died D. Garcia, succeeded him in the government D. Estêvão da Gama, and D. João de Castro was found with him in the expedition to the Red Sea. D. Estêvão da Gama went with 12 large galleons and carracks, and 60 galleys, on December 31, 1540, being D. João de Castro captain of a galleon. This expedition to Suez was truly remarkable, and João de Castro made a detailed roadmap of it, with maps, calculations, pictures and detailed notes from the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula as of those of the countries of today Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, as far to Suez and to several ports in the shores of the Sinai Peninsula, all included in the Roteiro do Mar Roxo, which offered to the Prince Louis. Eight months later he returned to Goa on August 21, having acquired by the experiences made during the expedition, the name of the philosopher. "I pay great attention to eclipses of the moon," he writes, as also to longitudes and latitudes, fishes, seaweeds, currents, winds,the colour of the Red Sea, and every detail that might concern the art of navigation, to the delight of his friends Pedro Nunes and Prince Louis, who had furnished him with special instruments and other assistance for his voyage.

D. João de Castro called for the need of the coordination between the observation and reason, in the case of the navigation: "This science of navigation is poorly distributed among the men, or because they act like idiots, which for a long time and continuous exercise they reach many particulars, though with all their works are never to gain authority in their office, or those who have no experience, but with much learning and great practice in the science of mathematics, reached the shadow of this art but not the true science." It is in overcoming this divorce that rooted the ways of science, which reaches an understanding with no epilogue, an open knowledge, in constant motion approach, not compatible with the spirit of the system. João de Castro tell us that the knowledge of science is "come to the truth", that science is "closer to the truth and not the absolute truth": "We need to consider how much we owe for teaching us how not to ignore the fact that we can be closer to the truth, as are human things that men can learn (...). Not only to be expected by virtue of reaching the truth, but also get close to her."
From Wikipedia

Bearer of Coat of Arms: Noble (aristocratic) family Full name of the bearer: João de Castro Where is Coat of Arms installed (short description) ?: Fonte Luminosa @ Praça do Império (Fountain) Material / Design: Stone Blazon (heraldic description): See above Address: Praça do Império Web page about the structure where is Coat of Arms installed (if exists): [Web Link] Web page about the bearer of Coat of Arms (if exists): [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   11/19/2019 Castor007 visited it