Discovering Cartagena

More Articles By Phillip Bruce www.raxomnium.com

Try Some Desert Island Cruising

Columbus Looks To Land 

A fine statue of Christopher Columbus stands on the terrace above the 18^th century walls at the Cartagena waterfront. 

He points eagerly out to sea but the caption at the base of the statue says simply “Tierra”, or “Land.”  Presumably the sculpture has attempted to capture the moment when he first saw the New World. 

Much controversy has raged about where the bones of Columbus lie. He died in Valladolid in northern Spain in 1506 and three years later his body was taken to a monastery in Seville.  Some 35 later it was moved to Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola.  Today the Dominican Republic, which shares the island with Haiti, claims to have the bones.  

However, when the French took Hispaniola in 1789, the remains of Columbus are said to have been taken to Cuba.  Spain lost Cuba to America in 1898 and the bones are supposed to have been taken to the cathedral at Seville. 

Only 200 grams of bones are buried at the cathedral but tests show that they match the DNA of the descendants of the great explorer.  No-one knows for certain what happened to the rest of the remains, although there is a huge monument in the Dominican Republic. 

Columbus is said to have sighted land on October 12, 1492, at what is now San Salvador.  That is presumably the “Tierra” he is pointing to with his right hand in the Cartagena statue. 

A regular local joke is for a newspaper to be placed under his left arm to create the impression that the explorer is pointing out that he is going off for a comfort stop. 

In Spanish, Christopher Columbus is written Cristóbal Colón, and a great many places in the Caribbean and South America are named after him.  Many products bear his name, such as the popular Colon brand washing powder, which produces reprehensible giggles in English speakers with a schoolboy sense of humour. 

Columbus wasn’t from Cartagena but from Genoa in what is now Italy.  Although he is a great hero today, and that is presumably, why his statue now graces Cartagena’s waterfront, he died in obscurity. 

end

BACK

© Phillip Bruce 2006-2008 All Rights Reserved

Legal Notice - All script & pictures on this website are legally registered and the copyright property of Phillip Bruce. Any copying of material whatsoever from this site is strictly forbidden and legal action will follow unless prior permission is sought.

Gary Smith Fishing