The Torri de Belém Tower was originally designed as a five-tiered lighthouse fortress on the Tagus River. lighthouse fortress on the Tagus River. It was built between 1515 and 1521 under Manuel I. From here Portuguese navigators sailed to discover new trade routes. During during the Napoleonic Wars, the building was half destroyed, but was completely but completely rebuilt in 1845. In the bastion, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, whose patronage brings good luck. patronage brings good fortune, it kept an image of the Blessed Virgin in a seashell.
The tower, built in the Manuelino style, is richly decorated on the outside with images of ropes, openwork balconies, Arabic-style turrets and crenellated walls. The balustrade of the bypass gallery of the fortress wall is decorated with the arms of the knightly order. order.
More recently, the Tower served as a prison and a weapons depot.
