Skip to main content

Secondary sourceSculpture2022-05-18

Vasco da Gama statue, Angra do Heroísmo

Bybbisch94, Christian Gebhardt · 2022-05-18

A 2022 photograph of a dark bronze statue of Vasco da Gama in a paved plaza in Angra do Heroísmo, Azores. It shows how the explorer is remembered in a Portuguese island town.

Shows Gama honored as a national navigator in a Portuguese town, through a modern bronze memorial rather than an object from his lifetime.

Ask Vasco da Gama about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Dark bronze statue of Vasco da Gama standing on a pedestal in a paved plaza with black and white mosaic stones. He wears a cap, a long cloak, a belt, and a cross on his chest, and holds a rope. Behind are white walls, arches, and a harbor with masts.
Bybbisch94 and Christian Gebhardt, Vasco da Gama statue, Angra do Heroísmo, Azores, photograph, 18 May 2022.

About this source

What it is

This is a photograph taken on 18 May 2022 by Bybbisch94 and Christian Gebhardt. It shows a dark bronze statue of Vasco da Gama on a pedestal in a paved plaza with black and white mosaic stones. He wears a cap, a long cloak, a belt and a cross on his chest, and he holds a rope. Behind the statue are white walls, arches and a harbor with masts. The statue is a later memorial, so it shows how he was remembered in the 2000s and 2020s rather than how he looked in his lifetime.

Why it matters

Vasco da Gama reached India by sea in May 1498, and he later became the second Portuguese viceroy of India. He died in Cochin in 1524. Monuments like this one connect a place with his voyages, and the harbor in the photograph reminds viewers of the maritime world he worked in.

Look closer

  • What do the rope, the cross and the harbor behind the statue suggest about how Gama is being honored?
  • Why might a town choose to place a monument to a navigator in a public plaza near the water?
  • What does this statue leave out about the people who lived in the lands Gama sailed to?

This sculpture is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Vasco da Gama on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Vasco da Gama sources

Meet the AI Vasco da Gama →
Painting of an elderly bearded man with white beard and dark beret, wearing a dark robe with brown fur collar and a red cross pendant. He holds a pair of spectacles and a folded handwritten letter against a dark green background.Painting

Secondary source

Portrait of Vasco da Gama

Anonymous · c. 1525

Painted portrait of a bearded man in a black cloak and black hat, holding a staff in his left hand and a sword hilt at his waist. Behind him is a shield with red and white stripes and a Portuguese coat of arms. The gold-colored inscription at top reads Dovasço da Gama Visoreie Comde.Painting

Secondary source

Vasco da Gama, Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu

Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu (compiler unknown) · c. 1565

A black line-drawn autograph signature on white background, with a stylized flourish above and an underline stroke beneath, running across the image from left to right.Document

Secondary source

Signature of Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama

A tall tapering white stone pillar topped with a stone cross stands on a raised circular platform by the sea. Two people sit on a low wall at left, and others sit near the right side under a partly cloudy blue sky.Artifact

Primary source

Vasco da Gama Pillar

1498 or 1499

Hand-painted portolan-style world map on parchment showing the Atlantic, Africa, and parts of Asia and the Americas, with compass roses, rhumb lines, colored flags, and Latin and Portuguese place labels.Document

Primary source

Cantino Planisphere

Anonymous Portuguese cartographer · 1502

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Vasco da Gama now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions