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A ''padrão'' is a stone pillar left by Portuguese maritime explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries to record significant landfalls and thereby establish primacy and possession. They were often placed on promontories and capes or at the mouths of major rivers. Early markers were simple wooden pillars or crosses but they deteriorated quickly in the tropical climate where they were often erected. Later, ''padrões'' were carved from stone in the form of a pillar surmounted by a cross and the royal coat of arms.
A ''padrão'' is a stone pillar left by Portuguese maritime explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries to record significant landfalls and thereby establish primacy and possession. They were often placed on promontories and capes or at the mouths of major rivers. Early markers were simple wooden pillars or crosses but they deteriorated quickly in the tropical climate where they were often erected. Later, ''padrões'' were carved from stone in the form of a pillar surmounted by a cross and the royal coat of arms.
History
Diogo Cão
Diogo Cão (; -1486), anglicised as Diogo Cam and also known as Diego Cam, was a Portuguese explorer and one of the most notable navigators of the Age of Discovery. He made two voyages sailing along the west coast of Africa in the 1480s, explorin ...
was the first to place stone padrões on his voyage of discovery along the coast of Africa in 1482–1484. They had been carved ahead of time in Portugal and carried in his ship at the behest of King João II. Cão placed the pillars at points in what is now Gabon, Angola and Namibia. The first was installed at the mouth of the river Congo. In August 1483 he erected one on the headlands of Angola at Cabo Negro with the inscription:
In 1522 the Portuguese mariner Henrique Leme negotiated a treaty with the Sunda Kingdom
The Sunda Kingdom ( su, , Karajaan Sunda, ) was a Sundanese Hindu kingdom located in the western portion of the island of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering the area of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Centra ...
and in commemoration he raised a padrão at the kingdom's main port, Sunda Kalapa
Sunda Kelapa ( su, , Sunda Kalapa) is the old port of Jakarta located on the estuarine of Ciliwung River. "Sunda Kalapa" (Sundanese: "Coconut of Sunda") is the original name, and it was the main port of the Sunda Kingdom. The port is situated in ...
, now part of Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. The Luso Sundanese padrão Luso may refer to:
* Luso (Mealhada), a civil parish in the municipality of Mealhada, Portugal
* Luis Eduardo Delgado (born 1984), Spanish footballer commonly known as Luso
* Luso Clemens, the protagonist in the video game '' Final Fantasy Tactics ...
was rediscovered in 1918 and is exhibited at the National Museum of Indonesia
) is an archeological, historical, ethnological, and geographical museum located in Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, right on the west side of Merdeka Square. Popularly known as the Elephant Museum ( id, Museum Gajah) after the elepha ...
.
Other notable explorers known to have erected ''padrões'' include Pero da Covilhã Pero may refer to:
* Pero (mythology), several personages in Greek mythology
** Pero (princess), daughter of Neleus
* Pero (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname Pero
* Pero language, a language of Nigeria
* Pero, Lombardy, ...
, Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias ( 1450 – 29 May 1500) was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships lay in the o ...
, Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea.
His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...
, Goncalo Coelho and Jorge Álvares
Jorge Álvares (died 8 July 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is credited as the first European to have reached China by sea during the Age of Discovery. His starting of settlements on an island in what is now Hong Kong is still considered a sign ...
.
The Lisbon Geographic Society
The Lisbon Geographic Society (Portuguese: ''Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa'') is a Portuguese scientific society created in Lisbon in the year of 1875, aiming to "promote and assist the study and progress of geography and related sciences in Po ...
managed to restore in the 20th century three erected by Diogo Cão and one by Bartolomeu Dias.
At the Dias Cross Memorial
The Dias Cross Memorial is a provincial heritage site at Kwaaihoek, Alexandria in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.
In 1945 it was described in the Government Gazette as:
The remains of the original cross erected by Bartolomeu Dias ...
on the coast of South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
's Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
province, there is a padrão replica on a promontory at what is now known as Kwaaihoek
Kwaaihoek is a rocky headland on the coast of Algoa Bay, at Boknesstrand near Bushman's River Mouth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is a section of the Addo Elephant National Park. It is here that the Portuguese navigator ...
; it was placed by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 to mark the site of his most easterly landfall after becoming the first European navigator to round the Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
. The original padrão was discovered by Eric Axelson in the 1930s – it had fallen, or was pushed, off the top of Kwaaihoek, and was in pieces in the gullies below. Axelson recovered these pieces and was able to reconstruct the stone monument; the reconstructed original now stands in the William Cullen Library of the University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...
in Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
.McLachlan 2013
List of padrões
See also
*Padrão dos Descobrimentos
''Padrão dos Descobrimentos'' (; lit. ''Monument of the'' ''Discoveries'') is a monument on the northern bank of the Tagus river estuary, in the civil parish of Santa Maria de Belém, Lisbon. Located along the river where ships departed to explor ...
References
Notes CitationsSources
* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Padrao Types of monuments and memorials Cross symbols Maritime history of Portugal Portuguese exploration in the Age of Discovery