Monument to Freedom

João Guilherme Arruda was one of the four mortal victims of the revolution that took place on April 25, 1974. From a humble family of the Santo António parish, he studied Philosophy at the Faculty of Literature in Lisbon. It was a revolutionary activist without partisan affiliation, but with high sociopolitical awareness. In the course of the revolutionary process of April 25, many people moved to the places where major political events were happening. Like others, João witnessed the surrender of the Barracks of Carmo, where the president of the council, Marcelo Caetano, was. When rumors of PIDE (the secret police) having shot people broke out, they went to the front of the PIDE building on Rua António Maria Cardoso. Pressured by the mob trying to take the building, members of PIDE fired machine-guns from one of the windows, striking dozens of civilians and killing four, including João Arruda, with a bullet to the head. He was 20 years old.
This is a well-deserved homage to the homeland of one of the forgotten heroes of the Revolution of April 25, 1974.
The monument was created by Álvaro França.