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Sicilian Culture: News & Views

Here Lies Christopher Columbus. And Here, And Here...
By Giles Tremlett in Madrid, The London Guardian

September 10, 2002 - - Christopher Columbus may have braved the oceans and, according to some, discovered the New World, but Spanish historians planning to dig up his remains for the 10th (TENTH!!!!) time clearly do not believe he has won the right to rest in peace.

Historians in the southern city of Seville and their counterparts on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo are getting out their pickaxes and spades once more for what they hope will be the final disinterment of a man who is deemed to have two corpses in two separate graves.

The first of these sits in the vast gothic cathedral of Santa Maria in Seville.

The second lies under a towering, 10-year-old monument to Columbus in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. Historians hope that by digging up both graves - and another burial spot, also in Seville, where his younger brother Diego is buried - they can use DNA testing to solve several arguments about the great navigator.

First and foremost, the tests should prove which of the two graves really contains one of the most widely travelled corpses in history.

Columbus died in the central Spanish city of Valladolid in 1506. His final testament, however, proclaimed that he wished his remains to be taken to the Caribbean island of La Espanola, now mainly occupied by the Dominican Republic.

His body spent three years in Valladolid before an 18-year stopover at a Carthusian monastery in Seville. It was finally shipped to Santo Domingo, along with the body of his son, in 1537. Both were eventually interred in the cathedral there.

In 1795, when Spain handed Santo Domingo over to France, some of the bones were carried off to Havana. These, in turn, were taken back to Seville in 1898 when the Spaniards were thrown out of Cuba.

Twelve years earlier, however, workmen at the cathedral in Santo Domingo had unearthed an urn containing bones and the inscription: "The Illustrious Don Christopher Columbus".

That urn was moved 10 years ago to the city's newly built Columbus Lighthouse monument.

The debate over where he really lies has raged since then, with some even claiming his bones were divided into two lots and partially buried in both spots. The last time scientists tried to lay the mystery to rest, by digging up graves in 1960, they were unable to come to a conclusion.

Forensic scientists also hope they can solve the row over whether Columbus was Spanish or Italian. Was he the child of Genoese wool trader Domenico Colombo or the bastard son of Spain's Prince of Viana?

That would require digging up the graves of supposed relatives, starting with Diego's next week.

Christopher Columbus' grave to be opened - again
www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,789147,00.html

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