4/5 RGSOUNDF 4 years ago on Google
The
monument
pays
tribute
to
over
9,000
Portuguese
soldiers
that
lost
their
lives
fighting
in
several
colonial
conflicts,
or
rather
wars,
that
the
crumbling
Portuguese
empire
was
engaged
in
for
over
12
years,
from
1961
to
1974.
Those
who
lived
in
the
1970s
must
remember
the
news
coming
from
Mozambique
or
Angola
at
the
time.
By
the
early
1960s
and
even
more
so
in
the
1970s
all
European
colonial
powers
(think
England
and
France)
got
out
of
the
colonial
business
with
varying
degree
of
bloodshed
involved.
Not
so
Portugal,
that
due
to
its
dictatorship
regime
just
couldn't
let
its
overseas,
all
of
them
African,
possessions
go.
The
loss
of
human
lives
was
one
of
the
main
reasons
of
the
mass
immigration
from
Portugal
at
the
time
and
the
ultimate
overthrow
of
the
regime
by
the
junior
officers
in
April
1974.
The
name
of
each
soldier
and
officer
who
died
fighting
their
Empire's
colonial
wars
is
engraved
in
the
walls
surrounding
the
central
triangular
stella.
The
guard
is
positioned
in
front
of
the
memorial
and
the
eternal
flame
is
in
the
background.
Definitely
worth
your
time,
if
not
as
a
dedicated
visit,
but
surely
as
a
part
of
your
Belem
tour.
1 person found this review helpful 👍