Qualla: Vasco da Gama Tower

Vasco da Gama Tower: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alvesgaspar, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2006, the French urban climber Alain Robert scaled a 160-meter tower on the bank of the Tagus River in Lisbon, sponsored by a Portuguese mobile phone company. The stunt captured something essential about the Vasco da Gama Tower: it is a building that invites spectacle. Designed to evoke the sail of a caravel, the ship that carried Portuguese explorers across uncharted oceans, the tower is the tallest structure in Lisbon and the most visible legacy of Expo '98, the World's Fair that transformed a derelict industrial waterfront into the modern Parque das Nacoes district.

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Image: Alvesgaspar | CC BY-SA 4.0

Vasco da Gama Tower: Built for a World's Fair

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. The tower was completed in 1998 as the centerpiece of Expo '98, a World's Fair themed around "The Oceans, a Heritage for the Future." The choice of theme was deliberate: 1998 marked the 500th anniversary of Vasco da Gama's voyage to India, the maritime achievement that launched t...

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Image: A.Savin | FAL

Vasco da Gama Tower: A Sail on the Tagus

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jose A., CC BY 2.0. The architects, Leonor Janeiro, Nick Jacobs, and the firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, drew their design from Portugal's nautical heritage. The tower's vertical mast rises from a base that enters the river like the bow of a ship, supported by pillars that form a terrace above th...

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Image: Jose A. | CC BY 2.0

Vasco da Gama Tower: Reinvention at the Top

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Osvaldo Gago (OsvaldoGago), CC BY-SA 3.0. The solution to the tower's post-Expo emptiness arrived in stages. Portuguese architect Nuno Leonidas designed a 20-floor, 178-room luxury hotel to replace the original base building. Demolition began in July 2007, and the five-star Myriad hotel opened in 2012, wrapping around th...

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Image: Osvaldo Gago (OsvaldoGago) | CC BY-SA 3.0