Manuel
Luciano da Silva, Medical Doctor
16
Brooks Farm Drive, Bristol, Rhode Island, 02809-2717, U. S. A.
Tel.
& Fax 401-253-5326
July 26, 2003
Mr.
Paul Allen-Luckman
Publisher
"The
Portugal News”
Portugal
E-Mail
letters@the-news.net
website: www.the-news.net
Sir:
Last month I went to Algarve with my wife to celebrate our 43rd wedding anniversary. She was a school teacher in Faro. We found Algarve very different from when we saw it during our honeymoon 43 years ago. But Algarve is always a jewel with its magnificent beaches, hotels and its friendly people.
We were terribly disappointed with our visit to the Promontory of Sagres. We thought we were going to see the Nautical School of Navigation created by Prince Henry, the Navigator, in 1418, but instead there is there an exhibit with modern paintings which nobody understands! What an absurd! Non-sense!
In the building of the Nautical School there is absolutely NOTHING related to the great period of the Portuguese discoveries. Not an old map, an astrolabe, a magnet needle, a model of caravel, one anchor, a simple naval rope, not even a painting of Prince Henry the Navigator! We left the place with a horrible empty feeling! The authorities responsible for such a situation should be ashamed of themselves.
Two thousand and four hundred years ago, Plato found in Athens, Greece, his Philosophical School called “Academia” because he taught on an open garden called “Academus”. Today there are no signs of Plato’s School, but nobody doubts of its existence.
2.350 years ago, Aristotle, the most famous Plato’s student, found another Philosophical School, in Athens, using another garden called “Lyceum”, name which was adopted by the high schools all over the world.
585 years ago, Prince Henry, Duke of Viseu and Administrator of the Order of Christ founded his School of Navigation in Sagres gathering scholars from everywhere to study the wind currents, the stars, and maritime techniques and cartography for the great discoveries. Prince Henry the Navigator was himself the School of Navigation, like Plato and Aristotle were for their respective philosophical schools. But more important today we still have the structures of the Nautical School at Sagres, which is the highest symbol of the Portuguese discoveries. Why destroy such icon?
The people from all Algarve should protest loud and clear to such a terrible offense to the memory of Prince Henry who was the first Governor of Algarve. He had the foresight to form his Nautical School at Sagres and make it the scientific center of the world, thereby launching: “Humanity’s first systematic work in the science of exploration”!
Respectfully,
Manuel
Luciano da Silva
Bristol, RI, U.S.A.
Take a look at these photos as evidence of the facts described above:
Prince Henry Decapitated: The only thing that exists, at the entrance of the Nautical School in Sagres, is this Prince Henry's head decapitated!...
Inside of the Nautical School Building, as part of the modern art exhibit, is this bust with many nails...This is the punishment that the responsible authorities really deserve for such a nautical discrepancy...
Another
modern art artifact exposing the reddish nipples....
Maybe to attract the sailors ??
This photo shows us, on the forefront, the sun dial, which is one floor above the gigantic compass rose, and at a distance is the building of the Nautical School. With all this navigational evidence, they have inside of the building a ridiculous exhibition of modern art!....