Final Resting Place

The Spanish city of Seville and the Dominican Republic’s Santo Domingo both claim to be the resting place of Columbus. The dispute about where the explorer lies buried came about because his remains have been repeatedly moved from one place to another. Over the years since his death, Columbus is said to have lain in the northern Spanish city of Valladolid, in Seville, in Havana and in Santo Domingo.

In 2003, Spanish scientists opened the explorer's alleged tomb, along with that of his son Fernando’s, in Seville Cathedral and removed the remains. They hoped genetic analysis would determine whether the body lying in the Columbus Crypt is indeed that of the world famous explorer. Historians are convinced that Fernando’s grave is authentic and so the key to the mystery may be provided by DNA analysis of both sets of remains.

At the time of his death, Columbus still believed that he had discovered the sea route to Asia. He later became famous as the "man who discovered America", but facts suggest that it was actually the Vikings, under Leif Eriksson, who first landed in the New World around the year 1000.

Even so it is true to say that Christopher Columbus paved the way for the exploration and conquest of the American continent by European powers.