Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries)

The Padrão dos Descobrimentos is the easiest Belém sight to fit into a port day. It is open every day, including Mondays when the Jerónimos Monastery and the Torre de Belém are closed, from 10:00 to 19:00 between March and September and to 18:00 from October to February, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. It stands on the riverfront across the avenue and railway from the monastery; use the underpass by the Praça do Império garden, about 9 minutes' walk. Much of the value is free. The sculpture group, Henry the Navigator at the prow of a stylised caravel followed by 32 figures of the Discoveries, is on the outside, and the 50-metre compass rose set into the square in front, with a world map tracing Portuguese routes, can be walked over at no cost. The €10 ticket buys the lift to the sixth floor, then 42 narrow steps to the rooftop viewpoint, plus the temporary exhibition. From the top you see the compass rose map properly, the monastery façade, the Torre de Belém to the west and the 25 de Abril Bridge upriver. Allow 30–45 minutes inside. If time is short, walk round the monument and the compass rose (about 15 minutes) and put the money towards the Jerónimos cloister. If you are skipping the inside of the Torre de Belém, this viewpoint gives you the river panorama without a timed slot. Tickets are sold on site and online through BOL, the only authorised online seller. From here, the tower is about 12 minutes' walk west along the river and MAAT about 16 minutes east. The monument was built in 1960 for the 500th anniversary of Henry the Navigator's death, replacing a temporary version from the 1940 Portuguese World Exhibition, and it reflects the Estado Novo regime's view of history.