World | Other World Stories
Columbus lands in the New World
Christopher Columbus is one of the very rare people whose remains are buried on two continents. And he is also one of those whose journey did not really end after he died in May of 1506 in the Spanish town of Valladolid.
- By Arno Maierbrugger, Staff Writer
- Published: 23:53 October 10, 2008
- Pre-Columbian artefacts are shown before a news conference on September 23 at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Miami Field Office in North Miami Beach, Florida. The US officials returned 168 pre-Columbian artifacts to Ecuador as part of an ongoing FBI initiative to repatriate stolen cultural treasures to their home countries.
- Image Credit: AP
Christopher Columbus is one of the very rare people whose remains are buried on two continents. And he is also one of those whose journey did not really end after he died in May of 1506 in the Spanish town of Valladolid.
He passed away after a long suffering from severe arthritis, most likely after-effects of his exhausting journeys across the Atlantic Ocean. He at first was laid to rest in Valladolid, but soon after his son transferred his remains to a monastery in Seville, southern Spain.
Even there he found no peace, as in 1542 his coffin was taken on another trip across the Atlantic and put into a church catacomb in Santo Domingo, Hispaniola (today the Dominican Republic) - seen as a symbolic gesture by his son Diego, who has been governor of Santo Domingo before.
But, as French fleets arrived on the shores of the island in 1795 and took over the busy trading base in the Caribbean, Columbus's bones went on their next trip and were taken to Havana, Cuba, which was a Spanish colony in these days.
After some 100 years of rest, Columbus again was expelled after Cuba became independent as a result of the Spanish-American war. He was shipped back to Spain and entombed in the Cathedral of Seville - where a catafalque was erected for his coffin. Since then (1898) he seems to have found peace there.
Over centuries of post-mortem travelling, some of Columbus's parts have apparently been lost on the way. Fragments of his bones are stored in a box bearing his name in Santa Domingo, and also Cuba claims to host remains of the seafarer.
Nevertheless, the anniversary of Columbus's first contact with what was later called the American continent is observed on October 12 in various countries throughout the Spanish hemisphere.
While it is known today that he definitely was not the first visitor from the Old World to set his foot on American soil, he without doubt was the most influential. His discovery triggered a wave of arrivals of Spanish ships and initiated the colonisation of America.
First trip
Columbus started his first trip westwards from Spain on August 3, 1492, sighting an island in the early hours of October 12, 1492 which he called San Salvador, today known as the Bahamas.
He continued his voyage until he touched the coastlines of Hispaniola and Cuba and then returned to Europe. On this first trip, his ship Santa Maria had to be left back after it ran aground on the coast of what today is Haiti. He also left a few dozens of his crew behind, who founded the settlement of La Navidad.
Three other journeys followed, during which Columbus explored the Caribbean Sea, discovered several islands including Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Trinidad, and reached the mouth of the Orinoco River in today's Venezuela.
On his fourth and last voyage, Columbus sailed to Central America and arrived in Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama and Costa Rica. At that time, he still believed that he had reached India on the westward route from Europe, mistaking the indigenous people as Indians.
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