Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
wealthy Christian named “Prester John,” supposedly located in either India or Africa.
(The legend may be based on a historical figure from around 1120 who visited the
pope in Rome as “patriarch of India.”)
Portugal also had certain natural advantages. Its Atlantic location led to a strong
maritime tradition. A unified nation-state (one of Europe's first) financed and coordin-
ated expeditions. And a core of technology-savvy men used and developed their ex-
pansive knowledge of navigational devices, astronomy, maps, shipbuilding, and lan-
guages.
Visiting the Tower:
This was the last sight sailors saw as they left, and the first as
they returned, loaded with gold, spices, and social diseases. When the tower was built, the
river went nearly to the walls of the monastery, and the tower was mid-river. Its interior
is pretty bare, but the views of the bridge, river, and Cristo Rei statue are worth the 120
steps.
The floatplane on the grassy lawn is a monument to the first flight across the South
Atlantic (Portugal to Brazil) in 1922. The original plane (which beat Charles Lindbergh's
Spirit of Saint Louis
across the North Atlantic by five years) is in Belém's Maritime Mu-
seum.
