The listing process was initiated by the then Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC) in June 2023 and received, in December of last year, a positive opinion from the Permanent Specialized Section for Architectural, Archaeological and Intangible Heritage of the National Council of Culture, with the agreement – ​​already in October of this year – of the president of the now public institute Cultural Heritage.

According to the Basic Law of Cultural Heritage, "the listing procedure must be completed within a maximum period of one year".

According to the announcement, the Cultural Heritage department proposes to the Secretary of State for Culture “the classification as a monument of public interest (MIP) of the Monument to the Discoveries and surrounding pavement, including the Compass Rose, on Avenida Brasília, Lisbon, parish of Belém, municipality and district of Lisbon”.

In 2021, a French student wrote, in graffiti, “Blindly sailing for money, humanity is drowning in a scarlet sea”.

In June 2023, the Monument to the Discoveries was vandalized again, with graffiti “of small size [that] did not cause damage”, as an official source from the municipal company EGEAC told the Lusa news agency at the time.

In February 2021, the Fórum Cidadania LX submitted a request for the classification of the Monument to the Discoveries, which only came to fruition in June of the following year when the Department of Cultural Heritage of the DGPC (Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage) proposed the classification of the building, along with the surrounding pavement.

According to the DGPC, the proposal received the agreement of the Architectural and Archaeological Heritage Section of the National Council of Culture, which led the Director-General of Cultural Heritage to order, by decree, the opening of the procedure.

The Monument to the Discoveries was already included in the Special Protection Zone (ZEP) of the Jerónimos Monastery and in the ZEP of the Museum of Popular Art.

Located on the banks of the Tagus River, the Monument to the Discoveries was designed by architect Cottinelli Telmo and sculptor Leopoldo de Almeida to be displayed at the Portuguese World Exhibition, held in 1940 during the Estado Novo regime. Its purpose was to be an "ephemeral" rather than permanent structure, and it was demolished in 1943.

"The idea of ​​rebuilding the monument was present from the beginning of the dismantling of the Exhibition buildings and the planning of the new urban layout of the area, an idea well received by the Minister [of Public Works] Duarte Pacheco and which met with resistance from Cottinelli Telmo; the project was forgotten after the minister's death [in 1943]," read the entry about the Monument on the DGPC website.

In 1960, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of Prince Henry the Navigator, the Monument to the Discoveries was rebuilt in concrete and Leiria pink stone, and the sculptures in Sintra limestone.