The Torre de Belém, officially Torre de São Vicente [2], is located in the parish of Belém, municipality and district of Lisbon, in Portugal. On the right bank of the river Tagus, where Belém beach once existed, it was originally surrounded by water around its perimeter. Over the centuries it was surrounded by the beach, until today it is incorporated the terra firma.
One of the ex libris of the city, the monument is an icon of the architecture of the reign of D. Manuel I, in a synthesis between the medieval tradition tower and the modern bulwark, where pieces of artillery were available.
Over time, the tower was losing its defense function of the Tagus bar and, from the Filipino occupation, the old warehouses gave way to dungeons. On the four floors of the tower, the Governor's Room, the Kings Room, the Audience Hall, and finally the Chapel with its fifteenth-century vaults remain.
The Torre de São Vicente (1514) belongs to a defensive formation of the Tejo basin, which was erected by João II of Portugal, composed by the tower of São Sebastião da Caparica (1481) to the south, and to the west by the Torre de Santo António de Cascais ( 1488).