Lonesome Memorials #14: Monumento aos Mortos da Grande Guerra; Lisbon, Portugal

So, in 1990 I found myself in Lisbon during the Iberian phase of my mini-grand tour of Europe. My  hotel was on the upper end of the capital's stylish grand boulevard, Avenue da Liberdade, that slopes down just about a mile from one of  the city's hills straight down to its waterfront. Walking down on a drizzly morning, I found the views were approximately like strolling down California Street from San Francisco's Nob Hill to the Embarcadero and the atmospherics similar to the Champs-Élysées. About half-way down—to my great surprise—I came across the impressive World War One memorial shown above. Before or since, I cannot remember another imposing Great War memorial surrounded by such elegance. I later learned its name is Monumento aos Mortos da Grande Guerra. It's intent, though, was immediately clear as a national memorial to Portugal's war dead.

The Fatherland Honors His Warrior

In other lands, Portugal's small, but unfortunate involvement in the war is mostly forgotten today. The country’s participation in the conflict was limited in scale—deploying to  France, where, for a time, they held a small sector of the Western Front and Africa, where Portuguese and German territory sat side by side. In both sectors, however, their casualties were disproportionately high given the size of the deployments. In Africa, some 7,000–8,000 African and European men died, mostly in Mozambique and predominantly from disease. In France, the number of fatalities stands at close to 2,000 with 5,000 wounded and 200 MIA. Thousands also were captured as well in the spring of 1918. Afterward, as for every other combatant of the war, Portugal's leaders and citizenry felt obliged to honor their fallen.

The Burden of War

Building this "Monument to the Dead of the Great War" was a decade-long endeavor, first proposed in 1920 and finally dedicated in 1931. Its top figure—The Fatherland—crowns a Portuguese soldier, who is wearing a Brodie-style British helmet, as he would have on the Western Front. On the sides, two heroic figures support the Fatherland in a supreme effort. The monument bears the captions "Grande Guerra" and "In the Service of the Fatherland, the Effort of the Flock." Annual commemorations are held at the monument every 9 April,  marking the date in 1918 when nation's expeditionary force on the Western Front was targeted in the opening action of Germany's second spring offensive. Things went terribly that day for Portugal's soldiers.

Soldier's Kit Detail

For information on Portugal's deployments and operations during the war, see our articles HERE and HERE.