Avis and the Discoveries

Avis and the Discoveries
Pombal and the Earthquake

More eras soon

Lusitania and Rome · Coming soonFor eight years the shepherd Viriathus beat Roman legions, and Rome got rid of him only by bribing his own men. Then came roads, bridges, cities and Latin. A thousand years later, Latin would grow into Portuguese.
Suebi, Visigoths and Moors · Coming soonAs Rome weakened, the Suebi set up a kingdom in the north with Braga as its capital. The Visigoths followed, and in 711 the Moors, who stayed in the south for more than five centuries. They left waterwheels, irrigation and thousands of words, from azeite to Algarve.
Birth of the Kingdom and the Reconquista · Coming soonAfonso Henriques took up arms against his own mother and became Portugal's first king. With help from crusaders sailing to the Holy Land he took Lisbon, and his descendants pushed on to the Algarve. The borders drawn back then have barely changed since.
Union, Restoration and Brazilian Gold · Coming soonYoung King Sebastian vanished in battle in Morocco, and for 60 years Portugal was ruled by Spanish kings. In 1640 a band of conspirators won back independence. Soon gold was found in Brazil, and Lisbon glittered: the palace at Mafra, the aqueduct, churches clad in gilded carving.
Monarchy and Republic · Coming soonFor a whole century Portugal argued over what it should be: a constitution, a civil war between two brothers, railways and the British Ultimatum. In 1908 the king was shot in Lisbon's main square; two years later the country was a republic. But in 16 years the Republic went through more than 40 governments.
Estado Novo and 25 April · Coming soonSalazar, an economics professor, came to fix the finances and stayed for 40 years. The country lived with censorship and secret police, sat out the Second World War and from 1961 fought in Africa. On 25 April 1974 a song on the radio gave the signal, and the regime fell almost without bloodshed.
The present day: the EU and emigration · Coming soonAfter the revolution the colonies won independence, and hundreds of thousands of people came back to Portugal. In 1986 the country joined the European Community, built bridges and motorways and hosted Expo 98. But crises keep pushing Portuguese abroad to look for work, just as their grandparents did in the 1960s.

Hidden stories: 2.

1385
14 August 1385 · Aljubarrota
The Battle of Aljubarrota
- Documented
- Power and revolt
- People like us
- Minimum age: 12+ (Has scenes of battle or violence.)
At 25, he left the war council and chose the battlefield himself. (Read the story)
In 1385 Nuno Álvares Pereira was 25 and Portugal's constable. The war council could not agree where to fight, so on 6 August he left the camp with about 2,000 men and chose the battlefield himself. Froissart says he had ditches and wolf pits dug across a narrow plateau. On 14 August, at the hour of vespers, the French knights who charged first rode straight into them. The Castilians, several times more numerous, lost.
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1415
1415 · Porto
The Tripe-Eaters of Porto
- Legend
- Food and wine
- People like us
Porto gave away its meat, kept the tripe, and got a nickname. (Read the story)
According to legend, in 1415 Porto's shipyards were secretly building a fleet for Ceuta. Prince Henry, born in the city, turned up unannounced and told the foreman, Master Vaz, the real target. Vaz promised the ships all the city's meat; the people would keep the tripe. Henry called the nickname 'tripe-eaters' an honour. Porto has worn it ever since.
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1434
1434 · Cape Bojador
The cape of fear
- Documented
- Sea
For twelve years sailors feared one cape. Gil Eanes brought back flowers. (Read the story)
Cape Bojador, on the coast of Western Sahara, was thought to be a place of no return. People said that beyond it there were no people, the sea was shallow and the currents would never let a ship come back. Prince Henry sent ship after ship, and every one turned back. In 1433 Gil Eanes of Lagos turned back too. The prince sent him again, and in 1434 he got through. As proof, he brought the prince plants the Portuguese called "Saint Mary's roses".
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1502
1502 · Lisbon
A Map Worth 12 Ducats
- Documented
- Sea
He came to trade horses. He left with the world. (Read the story)
Alberto Cantino arrived in Lisbon in 1501 as a horse dealer. He was really a spy for the Duke of Ferrara, sent to learn what Portuguese captains found. Maps of the new routes were state secrets, yet for 12 gold ducats someone in Lisbon drew him a copy of the world: Brazil, Africa, the way to India. In 1502 he slipped it out of Portugal. In Genoa a mapmaker copied it, and from there its coastlines reached Waldseemüller's 1507 map, the one that gave America its name.
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1511
25 July 1511 · Malacca
The Day the Elephants Turned Around
- Documented
- Nature
- Minimum age: 12+ (Has scenes of battle or violence.)
The sultan unleashed war elephants. They turned on his own men. (Read the story)
«Whoever is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice,» wrote the Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires, because Malacca controlled the spice route. On 25 July 1511 Afonso de Albuquerque attacked it with about a thousand men. The sultan answered with war elephants. The Portuguese met them with lances. The sultan's elephant, wounded, turned back howling, the others panicked and trampled their own side, and the sultan, wounded too, left his mount. A month later the city was Portuguese.
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1514
1514 · Rome
The elephant who went to see the Pope
- Documented
- Nature
- People like us
The Pope was given an elephant, and the elephant knelt before him. (Read the story)
In 1514 King Manuel I sent an embassy to Rome with gifts for the new pope, Leo X. The main gift was a young white elephant from India, about four years old. At the audience the elephant knelt before the Pope and trumpeted. Leo X was delighted and gave him a home in the Vatican. The elephant was called Hanno: he marched in festive processions, poets wrote verses about him, and all Rome came running to see him.
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1515
1515 · Lisbon
The Rhino and the Elephant
- Documented
- Nature
The king pitted a rhino against an elephant. The elephant fled. (Read the story)
In May 1515 a rhinoceros arrived in Lisbon from India, the first live one in Europe since Roman times. On 3 June King Manuel I decided to test Pliny's claim that elephants and rhinos are bitter enemies. A young elephant was brought out before a crowd. It panicked at the noisy crowd and fled before a single blow was struck.
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