Democracies also immortalise their heroes in statues and monuments. This statement is increasingly true for Portugal. The dictatorial legacy has been replaced by its adversaries and the symbols of the Carnation Revolution. The glorification of the country’s colonial heritage remains controversial.

The heroes of Portuguese democracy today are chiefly those who opposed the dictatorship of the “New State”. The most prominent figure of the military resistance was Humberto Delgado, popularly known as the “general without fear” (general sem medo). In the 1958 presidential elections, he caused a serious crisis for the regime. His candidacy could only be stopped by electoral fraud. In Delgado’s birthplace, the small village of Boquilobo, a museum was set up in his honour and a statue erected next to it. The main road that runs through the village now bears his name, as does Lisbon airport. The presidential elections of 1958 brought forth another hero of the resistance, António Ferreira Gomes, who was Bishop of Oporto at the time. He paid for his criticism concerning the elections in particular and the lack of liberties in the Salazarist regime in general with exile in Spain. In Oporto, a statue of Ferreira Gomes was erected by Arlindo Rocha in 1979 in front of the Clérigos Tower. A prominent monument honouring opposition writers such as José Saramago and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen was inaugurated in Coimbra – not far from the former PIDE headquarters – in 2001.

No historical event has had such a lasting impact on the topography of Portuguese cities in recent decades as the Carnation Revolution of 25^th April 1974. The references to this event are multifaceted. On the one hand, there are the graffiti, already known since the revolution, with their typical socialist-revolutionary iconography that decorate concrete walls in Lisbon to this day. Popular motifs include the red carnation, the number 25, or Captain Salgueiro Maia, who stands pars pro toto for the Armed Forces Movement. On the other hand, there are numerous statues and monuments with comparable iconography commemorating 25^th April, most of which were inaugurated on the anniversaries of the revolution. Finally, it is worth noting that 25^th April has exerted a considerable impact on the toponymy of the major Portuguese cities. Not only street names demonstrate clear references to the events of April 1974, but also large structures. On example of this is the suspension bridge over the Tagus in Lisbon, which was renamed from its original moniker Salazar Bridge to the 25^th of April Bridge.

In the course of the revolutionary upheaval in Portugal, the remnants of the former dictatorship were quickly removed from the country’s topography. This primarily concerned the statues and monuments of the dictator Salazar himself. The statue of Salazar which was created by Leopoldo de Almeida in Salazar’s home municipality of Santa Comba Dão in 1965 deserves special attention in this context. Immediately after the revolution, it was smeared and temporarily covered with black blankets, until it was finally decapitated in November 1975. Attempts to put the head back on led to massive riots that even claimed one life. In February 1978, the statue was blown up. Its remnants were replaced in 2010 by a monument dedicated to the “overseas fighters” in the Portuguese Colonial War. Thus, the statue was replaced by another highly contentious commemorative topic that is increasingly becoming the target of criticism.