Monumento aos Combatentes do Ultramar

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Monumento aos Combatentes do Ultramar

The monument to the veterans from overseas ( Portuguese Monumento aos Combatentes do Ultramar ) is a memorial to the memory of the fallen Portuguese soldiers of the Portuguese colonial war (1961-74), which in Portugal is often called the overseas war ( Guerra do Ultramar) . It is located at Forte do Bom Sucesso in the Belém district of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon . The foundation stone for the memorial was laid on May 12, 1993. The design was the responsibility of the sculptor João Antero de Almeida together with the architects Francisco José Ferreira Guedes de Carvalho , Helena Albuquerque and Sidónio Costa Cabral . The monument was opened on January 15, 1994 by President Mário Soares and Defense Minister Fernando Nogueira .

Building

Look at the inscription "AOS COMBATENTES DO ULTRAMAR" (for the veterans from overseas). In the middle the two pillars of the monument with the "Flame of the Motherland". In the background the wall with the names of the fallen soldiers.
View of the mirrored undersides of the short sides of the pillars of the monument

The monument is located in the immediate vicinity of the Fort of Bom Sucesso ( Forte do Bom Sucesso) at the Jardim de Belém in the Lisbon municipality of Belém . In the fort itself is the Museu do Combatente (Veterans Museum ). Numerous other buildings and memorials associated with Portuguese colonialism - such as the Monument to the Discoveries ( Padrão dos Descobrimentos ), the Torre de Belém and the Praça do Império - are located in the area and together form a colonial-historical thematic complex.

The completely abstractly designed monument consists of the following elements: In the middle of an elongated square there are two large pillars in a water basin that converge at 45 ° and form a large triangle or portico . The pillars are made of stone in the lower area and metal in the upper area. The downward-facing, short sides of the two columns are mirrored. Below the two columns - in the center of the triangle, so to speak - there is a small metal kettle with an ignited flame, the so-called "Flame of the Motherland", Portuguese Chama da Pátria . In front of the water basin there is a plaque on which "aos combatentes do Ultramar" (for veterans from overseas) is written in capital letters. Behind the triangle of pillars, a long wall with around 11,000 names of the fallen soldiers of the colonial war frames the monument.

According to the sculptor Francisco José Ferreira Guedes de Carvalho, he chose fire, the “flame of the motherland”, as a symbol for the security and warmth of the motherland. The water basin should represent the spatial separation between the metropolis and the overseas territories. The converging pillars are supposed to symbolically represent the unity of Portugal.

Two soldiers patrol in front of the memorial as a tribute to the fallen.

history

Initiative for a memorial

The idea for the memorial came about on the initiative of two veterans' associations in 1985 - a good ten years after the end of the Portuguese colonial war, which set up a small commission ( Comissão Nacional Pró-Monumento em Memória dos Mortos no Esforço da Guerra Ultramarina, German National Commission for the Construction of a Monument in Memory of the Favor of the Efforts of the Overseas War) to erect such a monument. The Associação de Comandos and the Associação dos Combatentes do Ultramar joined the Portuguese veterans association Liga dos Combatentes in 1986 . The three organizations wanted a place of recognition for the more than 8,000 Portuguese soldiers who died in the colonial war. Such a place should “1) represent an act of justice and recognition for the soldiers of Portugal in the colonial war, 2) a cultural and educational act for the enthusiasm for the love of Portugal, and 3) the recognition in a simple but permanent and public form Symbolize Portugal for these soldiers. "

Establishment of the Executive Committee

The organizations formed an executive commission on July 9, 1987, which was to carry out or instruct all necessary activities. The veterans association and its president General Altino Magalhães took over the management of the commission . The Commission (and thus the initiative for the monument) was also joined by the Geographical Society of Lisbon ( Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa) , the Historical Society of Portuguese Independence ( Sociedade História da Independência de Portugal ), the Association of the Portuguese Air Force ( Associação da Força Aérea Portuguesa ), the Association of Specialists of the Portuguese Air Force ( Associação dos Especialistas da Força Aérea Portuguesa ) and the Association of Invalids of the Portuguese Army ( Associação dos Deficientes das Forças Armadas) .

The Executive Commission then began its work and promoted the need for such a monument to the state authorities. After negotiations and discussions with the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff of the Portuguese Army, the former IPPAR monument authority and the city administration of Lisbon, the Fort of Bom Sucesso was chosen as the future location for the monument. As a justification, the commission cited not only general easy access for the public, but also the connection to other places in Portuguese colonial history, the sufficient space available for military parades and ceremonies, and the possibility of the monument due to the proximity to the Palácio de Belém to be honored by foreign state visitors.

Inauguration and criticism of Soares

At the same time, the construction of the monument was not without controversy. The veterans' association planned to set up an honorary committee ( Comissão de Honra ) for the memorial, to be chaired by President Mário Soares . The latter declined the invitation, however, as, in his opinion, membership in the body would express approval of the war.

After a public competition, the commission selected the sculptor João Antero de Almeida as the artist in charge. The architects Francisco José Ferreira Guedes de Carvalho , Helena Albuquerque and Sidónio Costa Cabral supported Antero de Almeida in the execution. The foundation stone was laid on May 12, 1993. After eight months of construction, the monument was inaugurated on January 15, 1994 - on the day of the Alvor Agreement - by President Mário Soares as part of a military ceremony.

The inauguration of the monument by President Mário Soares and Defense Minister Fernando Nogueira was accompanied by strong criticism both in the media, from the political camps and locally. At the inauguration, Soares was denounced as a "traitor" by the military because of the rejection of his membership in the honorary council and branded as responsible for the decolonization. The left-wing political camp again criticized Soares for participating in the inauguration, as it would confirm and justify the war as such. Soares himself defended his participation, since honoring the fallen Portuguese soldiers would only show respect for the dead, regardless of their beliefs.

Supplements in the following years

Originally the monument stood alone as such. Only in 2000 was a long wall added with the names of the fallen soldiers.

The monument with the two pillars stood alone in the water basin until 2000; the oversized wall with the names of the fallen soldiers was only added on February 5, 2000. A journalist from the newspaper Jornal de Notícias described the inauguration ceremony of the nameplate as oppressive, since President Jorge Sampaio had left the place quickly and the participants practically “ran” to the wall to find “their dead”.

Furthermore, in the years after the opening, additional plaques were attached in front of or on the monument. The first is “Homenagem de Portugal” (In honor of Portugal), the second “À memória de todos os soldados que morreram ao serviço de Portugal” (In memory of all soldiers who died in the service of Portugal). The third plaque, added in 2006, reads “Operações de Paz e Humanitárias” (Peace and Humanitarian Missions). In the course of affixing the third plaque, other names of soldiers who also died after 1975 were added to the wall. The actual meaning of the monument changed and expanded from originally a memorial for the “heroes” of the overseas war to a memorial for fallen Portuguese soldiers in general (comparable to a tomb of the unknown soldier ).

reception

View of the monument (left) and Torre de Belém (right) from the banks of the Tagus .

The monument to the veterans from overseas with its symbolism is strongly perceived as a memorial for the Portuguese colonial war . Military and veterans' associations regularly use the site to commemorate the fallen soldiers or to make political statements. Associations remind, among other things, that numerous bodies of Portuguese soldiers have not yet been found and brought back to Portugal.

At the same time, for critics of the Portuguese colonial era, the memorial serves as evidence of the inadequate reappraisal of Portuguese colonialism . In its aesthetics and symbolism, the monument is reminiscent of "heroes" of the so-called overseas war, i.e. overseas Portuguese territories. There is no discussion of the causes and consequences of colonialism or the colonial war as such - which in the now independent countries of Guinea-Bissau , Mozambique and Angola is referred to as a war of independence. The suffering of the other victims of the war in the colonies is not remembered, they are not mentioned.

The affixing of further plaques and the expansion or conversion of the monument to a place of remembrance for fallen Portuguese soldiers in general aroused displeasure among the veterans of the colonial war, who saw their services devalued.

Web links

Commons : Monumento aos Combatentes do Ultramar  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

bibliography

  • Elsa Peralta: O Monumento aos Combatentes: A Performance do Fim do Império no Espaço Sagrado da Nação . In: Paula Godinho (ed.): Antropologia e Performance - Agir, Atuar, Exibir, Colecção Cultura e Sociedade . No. 12, 100Luz, 2014; Pp. 215–237 ( available online )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The word "Combatente" can be translated with "Veteran" as well as with "Fighter". In the context of the monument, "veteran" is more obvious.
  2. ^ Lago do Monumento aos Combatentes do Ultramar. Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, accessed April 23, 2017 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ Claudia Kamke, Julia Hettler and Dina Khokhleva: The Portuguese colonial wars . Junior Professorship for Cultural and Social Change, TU Chemnitz, accessed on April 23, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b MUSEU DO COMBATENTE - Forte do Bom Sucesso (Junto à Torre de Belém). Liga dos Combatentes, accessed April 23, 2017 (Portuguese).
  5. ↑ Peralta, p. 218
  6. ↑ Peralta, p. 222
  7. ↑ a b Peralta, p. 222f.
  8. ↑ a b Peralta, p. 227f.
  9. ↑ LUSA: Ex-combatentes prometem continuar luta pelo orgulho da acção de militares nas ex-colónias. In: O Público. June 10, 2003. Retrieved April 23, 2017 (Portuguese).
  10. ↑ Isabel dos Santos Lourenço and Alexander Keese: Portugal's Colonial Memory and the Absence of Critical Discourses 1974-2010 . In: History and Society . tape 37 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011 ( available online [PDF]).
  11. ↑ Peralta, p. 221
  12. ↑ Peralta, p. 225
  13. ↑ Peralta, p. 234

Coordinates: 38 ° 41 ′ 33.5 ″  N , 9 ° 13 ′ 3.8 ″  W.