Seville is the city which story is closely connected with life and death of great discoverer of the New World. Inside Sevilla’s Cathedral near southern door stands the Tomb of Christopher Columbus, an elaborate monument dating from 1902 with four sepulchre-bearers representing the four kingdoms of Spain at the time of Columbus’ initial 1492 voyage: Castile, León, Aragón and Navarra.

Christopher Columbus (c. 1451 – 20 May 1506) was a great explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. With his four voyages of exploration and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, all funded by Isabella I of Castile, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the “New World” now known as America. I’m not going to tell here about all Columbus explorations. It’s even not about his last, forth voyage, just about his last return to Spain…

… On September 12, 1504., Christopher Columbus did many things for the last time. The ship he had come in from Jamaica had been refitted and placed under the command of his brother Bartholomew, and he had bought another small caravel in which he and his son were to sail. For the last time he superintended those details of fitting out and provisioning which were now so familiar to him; for the last time he walked in the streets of San Domingo and mingled with the direful activities of his colony; he looked last time at the place where the vital scenes of his life had been set, for the last time weighed anchor, and took his last farewell of the seas and islands of his discovery. It was his last return… Wind and sea rose up as though to make a last bitter attack upon the man who had disclosed their mysteries and betrayed their secrets. Horrible storm dismasted his ship, so that he was obliged to transfer himself and his son to Bartholomew’s caravel and send the disabled vessel back to Espanola. The shouting sea, as though encouraged by this triumph, hurled tempest after tempest upon the one lonely small ship that was staggering on its way to Spain; and the duel between this great seaman and the vast elemental power that he had so often outwitted began in earnest. It was difficult time for the sailors but finally the sea falls back disappointed and finally conquered by Christopher Columbus, whose ship, battered, crippled, and strained, comes back out of the wilderness of waters and glides quietly into the smooth harbor of San Lucar, November 7, 1504. There were no guns or bells to greet the Admiral; his only salute was in the thunder of the conquered seas; and he was carried ashore to San Lucar, and thence to Seville, a sick and broken man…

Columbus remained in Seville from November 1504 to May 1505, when he joined the Court at Segovia and afterwards at Salamanca and Valladolid, where he remained till his death in May 1506. Columbus’s remains were first interred at Valladolid, then at the monastery of La Cartuja in Seville by the will of his son Diego, who had been governor of Hispaniola. In 1542 the remains were transferred to Santo Domingo, in eastern Hispaniola. In 1795 the French took over Hispaniola, and the remains were moved to Havana, Cuba. After Cuba became independent following the Spanish-American War in 1898, the remains were moved back to Spain, to the Cathedral of Seville, where they were placed on an elaborate catafalque…

At his death, Columbus was still convinced that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia. The New World he explored was called by the name of another traveler but Columbus’ heroic exploit will be never forgotten in Spain and all World…