Portugal, window to the world

In the context of the Second Cyprus International Sea Festival “Nautilus” 2010, Evagoras & Kathleen Lanitis Foundation organizes, in collaboration with the Portuguese Embassy the historic exhibition “Portugal, window to the world”.

The Portuguese were the first to ‘unite the World’! People who, until then had lived for thousands of years in isolation, met and learned about each other. The realization and awareness of the existence of other civilizations stands as one of the most important contributions of the Portuguese Discoveries.

Missionaries and merchants or adventure lovers, travelled overland through Eastern Africa to the land of the Ethiopian Presbyter John, to the sources of River Nile, thousands of miles upstream, and the capital of Monomotapa. In Asia, they reached Tabriz, in Persia, and travelled even further, to Tibet, the Great Wall and even remote Japan.

The exhibition presents unique historical masterpieces from the 15th up to the 19th century, from important museums in Lisbon, such as Marhina Museum and the Museum Nacional De Arte Antiga. Amongst these an astrolabe dating from the 15th century, scale models of ships and objects from India, China and Japan which testify the influential presence of the Portuguese in Asia from the 15th until the 17th century.

Visitors shall also have the opportunity to marvel at a rare portrait of Vasco da Gama dating from the 15th century, which is one of the most important exhibits in the collection of Marhina Museum and which has rarely been exhibited abroad.

The inauguration of the exhibition will be the official opening of the Festival