EnglishMonumental Statuary
São Tomé, São Tomé Island, São Tomé e Príncipe
Equipment and Infrastructures
The monuments to Portuguese sailors and discoverers were numerous and were, until independence, present in various squares of the city, in a celebrative and distinctive manner. Some of these were later gathered in front of the Fortress of Saint Sebastian: that of Pêro Escobar, on the square of the former Bank Nacional Ultramarino, on the coastal road; of João de Santarém, in another urban square; of João de Paiva, in front of the former Sarmento Rodrigues Stadium, at the southeastern exit of the city. Still standing today at its original sites, are the monuments to Vasco da Gama, consisting of a spiral connecting an armillary sphere to a cross, between the former cathedral and the former Misericórdia, on a small tree-lined square near the coastal road, and that of the Comemorações Henriquinas (Commemorations of the Fifth Centenary of Prince Henry) of 1960, based on a standard sculpture by Severo Portela, also in the coastal road in front of the high school.