Another set of the statue of Henry the Navigator (Infante D. Henrique) in front of the gates of the Seven Hills Forest. Tomar reached an high level of development and importance when Henry Navigator lived in the city in the 15th century. It was in Tomar that he planned the Portuguese maritime discoveries and the town was considered the centre of Portugal as people travelling to Lisbon, Coimbra, Santarém and even Porto, usually had to go through Tomar.
Statue of Henry the Navigator close to the main gate of the Seven Hills Forest in Tomar
At the position I was when I shot this picture, the gate of Mata dos Sete Montes in Tomar was behind me and on the other side of the statue is Avenida Cândido Madureira
The statue of Infante Dom Henrique, the Portuguese prince who made Tomar a very important city in the 15th century
Once again a collection of photos of the statue of Dom Gualdim Pais, the founder of Tomar and a knights Templar serving the first King of Portugal, who was Dom Afonso Henriques. In the first photo I was lucky enough to shoot a picture of the statue without a pigeon resting on its head. There are so many pigeons around that sometimes it’s hard to get a clean photo without one of these birds adorning the head of the statue.
When I shot this photo of the Statue of Gualdim Pais, the founder of the City of Tomar, I was surprised that there were no pigeons resting on the head and other parts of the statue
I know that pigeons are nice birds and part of squares in all cities of the world, but sometimes it's hard to revere heroes of the past, with so many of these birds targeting their statues, just like poor Gualdim Pais in Tomar
This is the pedestal of the Statue of Gualdim Pais in Tomar and the inscription says something like this: "1162-Tomar-1962. In the 8th century of granting the charter, the city of today pays tribute to its founder"
When I left Portugal in 1989 to Australia, the statues of the writer and pharmacist Nini Ferreira and the composer and conductor Fernando Lopes Graça didn’t exist. I reckon that it was an great idea as these two personalities were great friends of the City of Tomar. The latter was well known in Portugal for his work as a musicologist and as a composer inspired in popular Portuguese music. Above all they were great friends who liked to talk to each other the way these statues portray them. They would go to Mouchão Park and would talk for hours.
This photo of the statues of Fernando Lopes Graça and Nini Ferreira was shot at Mouchão Park on the side of the children's playground, the soccer field and other sporting venues
Another perspective of the Statues of Nini ferreira and Lopes Graça at Mouchão Park. My mother, wife and son were sitting on the benches on the other side
The same statue of two great figures from Tomar. A composer and a writer who did everything they could to promote the name of the city. Behind me was Nabão River
We all know how important firefighters are for any community in the world and of course they deserve all our support and good will. In the case of the firefighters of Tomar, the Fire Department of this town was created in 1922 and in 1982 to honour the firefighters of the City of Tomar, a statue was erected in front of their headquarters at Rua de Santa Iria. However in the day they completed 85 years in 2007, this same statue was moved nearby to a roundabout at Avenida Norton de Matos where still is today as you can see in the photos below.
I shot this photo on the grounds of the headquarters of firefighters of Tomar. That statue in the distance used to be in the garden of these headquarters but was moved to the roundabout seen in this photo
The statue in honour of the firefighters of Tomar was placed at this roundabout at Avenida Norton de Matos. Thought you can't see it in this photo, the headquarters of the firefighters of Tomar are on my right
The statue of the firefighters in the City of Tomar at Avenida Norton de Matos, holding a child in his hands. This statue used to be nearby in the garden of the Fire Department of Tomar
We all know that the World War I, between 1914 and 1918 was one of the largest wars in human history, involving the world’s greatest powers that faced each other, organized in two alliances. According to some sources, more than 70 million soldiers were mobilized and almost 10 million were killed. Portugal also took part in that war and when I was a kid I was told that the husband of one of my mother’s aunts, was a soldier during WWI. He survived the war, but died soon after of some illness. Anyway, many of those soldiers who died in the Wold War I, couldn’t be recognized and due to that fact, statues of the unknown soldier were erected in many countries, including Portugal. Tomar has one of those statues at Varzea Grande, near the railway station and a former military base.
Statue of the Unknown Soldier in the City of Tomar in Portugal. World War I, was one of the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind. Almost 10 million people died in that war
A different perspective of the statue of the Unknown Soldier in Tomar, which is a reference to WWI, that involved two alliances and the greatest powers on Earth at that time
The inscription on the statue of the Unknown Soldier in Tomar, reads... "To the dead of the Great War. The Shire of Tomar. 1914-1918"
The statue of Henry the Navigator (Infante D. Henrique) in Tomar is at the entrance of the Seven Hills National Forest. This man is regarded as the patron of the Portuguese maritime discoveries and exploration throughout the world in the 15th and 16th centuries, and it was exactly in the City of Tomar that he planned the greatest historical era of Portugal. It was in Tomar that Henry the Navigator envisioned and projected the Portuguese empire of a few centuries ago. He was born in 1394 and was the son of the King D. João I (John I) of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, who was the sister of the King Henry IV of England.
Henry the Navigator (Infante D. Henrique) was the third son of the King D. João I ( John I) of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, sister of the King Henry IV of England
Prince Henry the Navigator, planned the Portuguese discoveries of past centuries in the City of Tomar, and was responsible for the formation of the Portuguese empire throughout the world
Henry the Navigator was born in 1394 in the City of Porto, north of Portugal and was appointed the governor of the Order of Christ, which had succeed the Order of the Knights Templar whose headquarters were in Tomar
The statues of the Portuguese composer Fernando Lopez Graça and the writer Nini Ferreira (Fernando Araújo Ferreira) located at Mouchão Park in Tomar, near the soccer field and right next to Nabão River, is the creation of the sculptor Rui Fernandes. These two men were great “tomarenses” (the way people born in Tomar are called) and very good friends despite their completely different political beliefs. The Composer Fernando Lopes Graça, thought born in Tomar, used to live at Paredes, near Cascais (Lisbon area) but Nini Ferreira lived in Tomar all his life, wrote a few books about the town and was a great friend of the city he was born. Every time the composer Fernando Lopes Graça visited Tomar both friends used to get together, often sitting down on a bench at Mouchão Park and engage each other on long conversations. The composer Fernando Lopes Graça died with 88 years old in 1994 and Nini Ferreira died with 86 years old in 1998.
The statues of the writer Nini Ferreira on the left and the composer Fernando Lopez Graça on the right "talking to each other" on a bench at Mouchão Park in Tomar, Portugal
Statues of two great friends. When the composer Fernando Lopes Graça on the right visited Tomar, he and his friend Dr. Nini Ferreira on the left, used to engage on long conversations at Mouchão Park in Tomar
These two men from Tomar, Nini Ferreira the writer and great friend of the town and Lopes Graça the composer, are modern historical personalities of the City of Tomar and will be remembered forever
Dom Gualdim Pais was a knights templar at the service of the King Dom Afonso Henriques, who by the way, was the founder of the kingdom of Portugal. They are both founders. The king founded Portugal and Gualdim Pais founded the City of Tomar more than 800 years ago. This Portuguese Knight whose statue you can see in these photos below, fought with the new king of Portugal the Battle of Ourique, which was one of the the greatest battles for freedom that Portugal had to fight. The Portuguese were hugely outnumbered against five Moorish Kings but the King of Portugal D. Afonso Henriques helped by Gualdim Pais and other knights, defeated them and that cemented Portugal as a free kingdom. As a reward for helping the king, Gualdim Pais was ordained the fourth Grand Master of the Order of Knights Templar and that led him to later (1160) start the building of the Castle of Tomar establishing there the new headquarters of the Templars and as a result creating a new town which would be called Tomar.
This is the statue of Gualdim Pais, the founder of the city of Tomar in Portugal, in 1162
Statue of Gualdim Pais at Republica Square, who founded Tomar 849 years ago
Inscription on the Statue of Gualdim Pais. It says: To Gualdim Pais the Founder of Tomar with important dates below