Scientists have ‘definitively’ proved identity of remains – with navigator’s precise origins to be revealed
Scientists in Spain claim to have solved the two lingering mysteries that cling to Christopher Columbus more than five centuries after the explorer died: are the much-travelled remains buried in a magnificent tomb in Seville Cathedral really his? And was the navigator who changed the course of world history really from Genoa – as history has long claimed – or was he actually Basque, Catalan, Galician, Greek, Jewish or Portuguese?
The answer to the first question is yes. The answer to the second is … wait until Saturday.
The long-running and often competitive theorising has not been helped by his corpse’s posthumous voyages. Although Columbus died in the Spanish city of Valladolid in 1506, he wanted to be buried on the island of Hispaniola, which is today divided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. His remains were taken there in 1542, moved to Cuba in 1795, and then brought to Seville in 1898 when Spain lost control of Cuba after the Spanish-American war.
I’ve been to Seville myself … never wanted to go visit the tomb of a celebrated psychopath
But one of the great things I learned from the Spanish from a young university student at a government protest one day (the Spanish are always ready to protest) … their history is written in their national flag … two red bands between a yellow one … a river of gold between two rivers of blood.