was one of several projects nationwide that were intended to mark the Comemorações Henriquinas (the celebrations marking the anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator). Yet it was not completely finished until 10 October 1960, being transferred to the responsibility of the Administração Geral do Porto de Lisboa (General Administration of the Port of Lisbon). Although in 1962, an accord was signed with the Câmara Municipal of Lisbon to transfer its title, between 1960 and 1979 nothing was done with the monument. A document (Despacho No.57/P/79) published in the municipal journal (No. 13260, 5 November 1979) advanced the city's intention to produce a permanent exhibition, but it was only in 1985 that public works completed the cultural centre () which inaugurated public access to the top of the structure, in addition to creating spaces for an observation deck, auditorium and hall for exhibitions. In April 2003, the management of the Padrão dos Descobrimentos was placed in the custody of the public company Gestão de Equipamentos e Animação Cultural (EGEAC, E.E.M.). Architecture The structure is located on the northern bank of the Tagus River, neighboring the Belém Marina, Algés and Dafundo Nautical Centre, and the Museum of Popular Art (), and demarcated by stone pedestals with armillary spheres. Opposite the large square, and across the Avenida da Índia-Avenida de Brasília motorway, is the Praça do Império (Empire Square) which fronts the Jerónimos Monastery, Belém Cultural Center and the green-spaces of the Jardim Vasco da Gama. The original structure, which Telmo, Barros and Almeida created, was erected in steel and cement, while the 33 statues were produced in a composite of plaster and tow. Ostensibly a slab standing vertically along the bank of the Tagus, the design takes the form of the prow of a caravel (ship used in the early Portuguese exploration). On either side of the slab are ramps that join at the river's edge, with the figure of Henry the Navigator on its edge. On either side of the Infante, along the ramp, are 16 figures (33 in total) representing figures from the Portuguese Age of Discovery. These great people of the era included monarchs, explorers, cartographers, artists, scientists and missionaries. Each idealized figure is designed to show movement towards the front (the unknown sea), projecting a direct or indirect synthesis of their participation in the events after Henry. The South African government was responsible for gifting the