Where is Columbus buried?

Answer 1

His current resting place is in the cathedral in Santo Domingo. For more information on the history and the other theories put forward (but proved wrong) about Columbus's burial place, look at the Related Links below.

Answer 2

Columbus died and was buried in Vallodolid, Spain in 1506. He had asked to be buried in the Americas, but no church existed of sufficient stature. In 1509 his brother Diego had his remains moved to a monastery in Sevilla, Spain. In 1542 his daughter-in-law had his body and that of her husband, Columbus's son, Diego, moved to the Dominican Republic. She asked that Columbus's remains be placed on the "right hand" side of the altar in the new Cathedral of Santa María.

In 1795 Spain lost control of the Dominican Republic and took Columbus's bones with them to Havana, Cuba. Just over a hundred years later they took his bones back home to Spain when they lost control of Cuba. In 1899 his bones were placed in an elaborate tomb in a cathedral in Sevilla, Spain.

But.... in 1877 a box was discovered under the left side of the altar in the cathedral in Santo Domingo. The box was inscribed with "The illustrious and excellent man, Don Colón, Admiral of the Ocean Sea." This box is now found in the Faro a Colón Lighthouse, and the Dominicans claim the Spaniards took the wrong body.

In 2004 the body in Sevilla, Spain was examined. Scientists decided the body was too small and too young to be that of Columbus and was probably that of his son, Diego, according to Marcial Castro who headed the investigation. He believed Columbus's remains were in the Dominican Republic.

In 2006 DNA tests compared the body in the cathedral with the remains known to be Columbus's brother, Diego The mitochondrial DNA was an absolute match according to Marcial Castro, a Seville area historian and high school teacher who masterminded the project. The Dominicans have refused to allow their tomb to be opened for testing. Castro believes it is possible that part of Columbus's body could be in the Dominican Republic, and that DNA testing is the only way to determine who is there. Juan Bautista Mieses, director of the lighthouse, refused to allow the tomb to be disturbed, saying "We Christians believe that one does not bother the dead."

José Antonio Lorente, the Spanish geneticist who ran the DNA tests, is now collecting samples from people in northern Spain named Colom and people in Italy named Colombo to determine if Columbus was from Catalunia in northern Spain or Italy.

Answer 3

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