Памятник поэту Monument to the poet

Rating 9110

Place Camõ es, or more precisely Camoes, crowns the 1867 monument to Luis Camõ es (sculptor Bastos), the national poet of Portugal. His death on June 10.1580 coincided with the country's loss of independence, and this day is regularly celebrated in Portugal. The poet was brought up without a mother by his uncle, the chancellor of the University of Coimbra, having completed his education there, the poet settled in the capital, where he fell in love with the queen's maid of honor, whom he accidentally saw in the church. He achieved the position of court poet, but palace intrigues forced the king to send him to war in the African garrison of Ceuta, in one of the battles the poet lost his eye, left the army and Africa, returned to the capital and went to prison for a fight in a church procession. King Juan III graciously replaced the imprisonment with exile in the overseas possessions of Portugal.
After a shipwreck at the mouth of the Mekong River, Camõ es returned to Portugal and published the poem "Lusiads" he created, dedicated to the image of the exiled poet, in which real moments of Portuguese history are woven, in particular, those associated with the voyage of Vasco da Gama, his distant relative. The poem became so popular that the poet received a pension from the king, but fell ill with the plague and died. Adversity in life is known to stimulate the gift of poetry!