Posts Tagged ‘christopher columbus’
At the end of Las Ramblas you can find a statue dedicated to the explorer Christopher Columbus. The statue, referred to as the Colom in Catalan or Colon in Spanish, stands 60 meters (197 feet) tall.
The place where the statue stands, near the Port Vell, symbolizes that Barcelona was the place where Christoper Columbus returned from his trip to the Americas, and then reported to Queen Isabella and Ferdinand about his voyage. The idea to construct the statue began in 1856, by Antoni Fages i Ferrer. However the construction did not begin until 1881, when he had the support of the mayor of Barcelona. There was a contest among Catalan artists to design the statue. The Catalan artist, Gaieta Buigas i Monrava, won the contest. Antoni Ferrer only wanted Catalans to construct the statue. The construction began in 1882 and was completed in 1888, right before the Exposicion Universal de Barcelona. The bottom of the monumet is 20m (66 ft) wide circle, and at the very top of a Corinthian column stands a 7.2m (24 ft) bronze state of Columbus. With his right hand, Columbus is pointing to the New World, and holding a scroll in his left hand. However, he is not pointing to the new world, but is pointing east towards Columbus’s home town of Genoa.
