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Belém Tower

Portugal

The 186th tallest tower in the world

m

Belém Tower (Torre de Belém, pronounced [ˈtoʁɨ ðɨ ɨˈlɐ̃j], literally: Bethlehem Tower), officially the Tower of Saint Vincent (Torre de São Vicente), is a 16th-century fortification located in Lisbon, Portugal, which served as a point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon. The tower symbolizes Portugal's maritime and colonial power in early modern Europe. It was built during the height of the Portuguese Renaissance and is a prominent example of the Portuguese Manueline style, but it also incorporates other architectural styles, such as the minarets, which are inspired by Moorish architecture. The structure was built from lioz limestone, a material local to the Lisbon region, and is composed of a bastion and a 30-metre (100 ft) four-storey tower. Since 1983, the tower has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Jerónimos Monastery. It is often portrayed as a symbol of Europe's Age of Discoveries and as a metonym for Portugal or Lisbon, given its landmark status. It has incorrectly been stated that the tower was built in the middle of the Tagus and now sits near the shore because the river was redirected after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. In fact, the tower was built on a small island in the Tagus river near the Lisbon shore.

Building data from Wikidata (CC0); heights normalised. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

More tall towers in Portugal

  1. Tower of Penegate m
  2. Lisbon Harbor Control Tower m
  3. Tower of Bera m
  4. Vasco da Gama Tower m
  5. Tower of D. Pedro Pitões m

Other tall towers worldwide

  1. Warsaw radio mast · Konstantynów646.4 m
  2. Tokyo Skytree · Oshiage634 m
  3. KRDK-TV mast · Traill County627.8 m
  4. Diversified Communications Tower · South Carolina609.6 m
  5. KATV tower · Jefferson County609.6 m
  6. KVLY-TV mast · Blanchard605 m
  7. Abraj Al Bait · Mecca601 m
  8. Canton Tower · Chigang Subdistrict600 m