"Afonso I or Alfonso I (c. 1109, Guimarães or Viseu – 6 December 1185, Coimbra), more commonly known as Afonso Henriques, nicknamed "the Conqueror" (Portuguese: o Conquistador), "the Founder" (Portuguese: o Fundador) or "the Great" (Portuguese: o Grande) by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali ("the Portuguese") and Ibn-Arrik ("son of Henry", "Henriques") by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal. He achieved the independence of the southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia -County of Portugal- from the León, in 1139, doubling its area with the Reconquista, which he carried until his death, in 1185, after forty-six years of wars against the Moors."
--Wikipedia (
visit link)
"The Royal Equestrian and Military Order of Saint Michael of the Wing (Latin: Ordo equitum Sancte Michaelis sive de Ala, Portuguese: Real Ordem Equestre e Militar de São Miguel da Ala), also called the Order of Saint Michael of the Wing, is a Portuguese Roman Catholic dynastic order that is believed to have been founded in 1147 in the Alcobaça Monastery in Alcobaça, Portugal, by King Afonso I of Portugal, in commemoration of the Conquest of Santarém from the Moors in 1147. The name was chosen in honour of the military saint archangel Michael, who assisted in the victory in the shape of a wing in the sky."
--Wikipedia (
visit link)
The statue was sculpted by Leopoldo de Almeida in 1950.