Columbus' stay in Las Palmas

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: People

Concerning the supposed presence of Christopher Columbus in the city of Real de Las Palmas during his First Voyage, the whole episode is subject solely to hypothesis and conjecture. However, there was no doubt he was there on 2nd October 1493, when, together with the seventeen vessels sailing on the Second Voyage he moored up on the edge of town, around the port area of Las Isletas, as well as the four days running from the 20th to 24th May 1502, when four other boats turned up there, signalling what would be his final and definitive voyage to the West Indies.

The founding of the present day city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is down to Juan Rejón and Pedro de Vera. The former, according to A. Rumeu de Armas, would lay the foundations for the royal military camp in the final phase of the conquest around 1478, setting up at a pine grove located on the right hand side of the ravine at Guiniguada, where a stone wall was erected, along with a fortress tower and a spacious warehouse to store provisions. Within this area a small church was built in honour of Santa Ana, patron saint of the city. The original nucleus of the city was built around the present day square of San Antonio Abad, roughly where the military camp had been set up.  As well as these sites, on passing through, the Admiral could see the fortress at Las Isletas, by the Port of La Luz on the outskirts of Real de Las Palmas, with its construction going back to 1492, and which according to A. Rumeu must have originally been a small square defence with a platform on which artillery was placed. All these places must have been contemplated set foot on by the Admiral, almost certainly on this Fourth Voyage, and in which tradition recalls his presence with a memorial plaque set on the hermitage of San Antonio Abad mentioned earlier. Columbus is believed to have prayed there.

[...] In the same way as his First and Second Voyages, Columbus was a guest of Beatriz de Bobadilla on the island of La Gomera, we are sure that the Admiral was in the town of San Sebastián. We also believe for the same reason that on this last trip to the Port of Las Isletas, he would have had the chance to contemplate and set foot on the incipient sprawl of Las Palmas, along with his friend Antonio de Torres, who was governor of the island at the time. And as a former collaborator with Columbus, having taken part in the second expedition to the Indies, it would be logical to think that he set up all relevant contacts and interviews for the Admiral, not on his boat but rather in the city of Las Palmas, at the Governor’s residence itself. 

 

 

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