Tower of Belém

More than any other monument in Portugal the Tower of Belém reflects the courage, the pioneering contacts with other peoples and the major contributions Portugal made to world events in the past.

Any works of conservation of the Tower have to take into account the role the Tower played in Portuguese history.

The works undertaken must be understood as a maintenance operation which we can call extraordinary. The last major works were done about 150 years ago, around 1840.

During the 20th century specific minor improvements of the Tower were made, at the time of the "Portuguese World Exhibition" in 1940, and the "17th Exhibition of Art, Science and Culture " in 1983.

The scientific and technical teams worked well together to manage and co-ordinate the conservation work.

In the preliminary phase at the beginning of 1994 tests were done on about 40 m2 of surface area, in the North elevation of the Tower.

Using the results from these tests it was possible to look at the whole work to see the extent of possible conservation.

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