Vasco Da Gama Monument

About Vasco Da Gama Monument

The monument commemorates the landing of Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama’s expedition at St Helena Bay on 8 November 1497, an event that preceded his opening of the sea route from Europe to India. Erected near the beach at Stompneus Bay, where he likely came ashore, the monument marks the quincentenary of his birth, officially accepted for the occasion as 1469. Donated by the Portuguese government to South Africa, it consists of two sculpted, stylized padrões (stone columns), one bearing the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Portugal, set on an exposed granite rock dome.