Vasco da Gama´s Tomb
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manchanegra
N 38° 41.845 W 009° 12.350
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Vasco da Gama (Sines or Vidigueira, Alentejo, Portugal, c. 1469 – December 24, 1524 in Kochi, India) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the European Age of Discovery, and the first person to sail directly from Europe to India.
Waymark Code: WMVVH
Location: Lisboa, Portugal
Date Posted: 10/20/2006
Views: 455
Vasco da Gama (Sines
or Vidigueira,
Alentejo, Portugal,
c. 1469 – December
24, 1524 in Kochi,
India) was a
Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the European Age of Discovery,
and the first person to sail directly from Europe to India.
Commissioned by King Manuel I of Portugal to find Christian lands in the East
(the King, like many Europeans, was under the impression that India was the
legendary Christian Kingdom of Prester John), and to gain Portuguese access to
the commercial markets of the Orient, da Gama extended the sea route exploration
of his predecessor Bartolomeu Dias, who had first rounded Africa's Cape of Good
Hope in 1488, culminating a generation of Portuguese sea exploration fostered by
the nautical school of Henry
the Navigator.
Da Gama's voyage was successful in establishing a sea route from Europe to
India that would permit trade with the Far East, without the use of the costly
and unsafe Silk Road caravan routes, of the Middle East and Central Asia.
However, the voyage was also hampered by its failure to bring any trade goods of
interest to the nations of Asia Minor and India. The route was fraught with
peril: only 54 of his 170 voyagers, and two of four ships, returned to Portugal
in 1499. Nevertheless, da Gama's initial journey led directly to a
several-hundred year era of European domination through sea power and commerce,
and 450 years of Portuguese colonialism in India that brought wealth and power
to the Portuguese throne
He died in the city of Cochin on Christmas Eve in 1524. His body was first
buried at St. Francis Church, Fort Kochi, Kochi, then later his remains were
returned to Portugal in 1539 and re-interred in Vidigueira in a splendid tomb.
The Monastery
of the Hieronymites (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos)
in Belém was erected in honor of his voyage to India and is where is body rests
now.
Notes: The birth day and month are unknown.
The Tomb is inside the Church.