Lighthouse Columbus – Museum in Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic

Immediately tell readers that this is generally no lighthouse, it is a museum dedicated to Christopher Columbus and the opening of America. Rather, he can serve as a beacon, as the spotlights are installed on it, but the benefits of it, as from the lighthouse, little.

When the guides in Dominican describe you a tour of Santo Domingo, a mandatory part of which is a visit to Columbus Lighthouse, they describe you with admiration that it is here that the remains of the Great Maigner and the Larch of America are. In fact, there are no accurate evidence that the remains of Christopher Columbus are kept in Santo Domingo in the Columba Lighthouse.

The second city, which claims to believe that the remains of Christopher Columbus are located, is the city of Seville in Spain. Below we tell the story of this confrontation in detail.

Many tourists complain about this excursion due to frequent power supply in the Columbus Lighthouse. Unfortunately, in Dominican, it happens often.

In any case, this museum is interesting and it is worth a visit. We will tell about everything in order.

Excursion to Santo Domingo is designed for a whole day. Tourists takes the bus, the path from the resort of Punta Cana to Santo Domingo takes 2 hours. Although the distance from Punta Cana to Santo Domingo is 150 kilometers, the quality of the roads in the Dominican Republic leaves much to be desired, there are no high speeds from transport.

Columbus Lighthouse in most excursions is the first place to visit upon arrival in the capital of Dominican Republic. The building itself is very interesting, it is made in the form of a cross, which symbolizes Christianity in America.

There are almost no greens around the building, which is strange, since large amounts of money are spent on the construction of the building, apparently they just did not have enough. Honestly, it is the wasteland around the building spoils all the impression of this grace building.

The idea to build a monument to Christopher Columbus in Central America arose for a long time ago, at the beginning of the 20th century began to collect donations in favor of such a project. The natural place for such a monument was Santo Domingo as the first major colony based by Columbum. The project was redone several times, suspended and even started to build. But the unstable political situation in Dominican prevented the construction and built a monument only by 1992, just to the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the opening of America Christofore Columbus.

Inside there is the fact that many Dominicans consider relics, the remains of Christopher Columbus. Most Dominicans believe that they are here. We will briefly tell the history of the remains.

Christopher Columbus died in the 1506th year, at the age of 54.

By this time, the health of the navigator was seriously undermined, the most useful lifestyle on ships, many illness diseases. Columbus died in poverty, the Spanish crown freed him from all posts and privileges, and although Christopher Columbus himself and his descendants were trying to sue some benefits from the Spanish kingdom, these attempts were in vain.

At the time of death, Christopher Columbus was located in Spain in the city of Walladolid. There for the first time they buried in the monastery. Christopher Columbus traveled after death no less than in life. 40 years later, the remains were taken out and reburied in Santo Domingo. But after capturing the island of France, the remains moved to Cuba. In 1998, the remains were taken to Spain to the city of Seville.

This version has been the official version of Spain for a long time. Dominican has its own version of the events, which is that in 1877, the remains were found in Santo Domingo, how they did not know there.

For a long time Sevilla and Santo Domingo argued about who the real remains of Christopher Columbus are located.

And in 2003, the Spaniards decided to make a "horse’s move". They allowed the exhumation of the remains in Seville to prove that they were the dust of the discoverer. The conclusions were ambiguous. On the one hand, exhumed remains were not similar to the remains of Columbus, the remains clearly belonged to a person who died at the age of 45.

Fully DNA in the remains of Seville did not preserve, but some particles found scientists. The official conclusion of genetic scientists was such: "A person who is buried in Seville, and Diego Columbus Son of the same mother". It is difficult to say how much you can believe in such initial data, in the dominican they do not believe in them at all, and they believe that the real remains are stored in them.

Dominican does not allow the exhumation of the remains, which are located in the Columbus Lighthouse in Santo Domingo, and find out the truth in the near future we will not succeed. Therefore, we cannot guarantee you that the remains that you will see in Columbus Lighthouse are genuine, but also to argue that they are fake, too.

If you are guaranteed to see the remains of the navigator, you will have to visit the Columbus Lighthouse in Santo Domingo, and the Cathedral in Seville in Spain.

Let’s go back to the beacon of Columbus. Along the long part of the Cross there is a very long corridor, passing through the whole building, from the corridor, you can enter the many rooms, each is dedicated to its topics. Basically, the rooms are dedicated to countries that participated in construction. The room dedicated to Russia here too.

For most tourists, walking around the rooms more tires than entertaining. The main exhibit here is still the dust of Christopher Columbus, which traditionally protects the Dominicansky Marine. Photo We led at the beginning of the article. Protection, of course, modest, if compared in Lenin’s Mausoleum in Moscow.

Another interesting exhibit is the armor of Pope Roman, which he used during his visit.

The most interesting thing in the museum is the exhibits associated with the pre-counter epoch and the beginning of the colonial era. There are many objects that belong to the ancient cultures of Indians, including Maya and Aztecs.

In the photo above, perhaps the most valuable exhibit. This is a letter of Maya. Their civilization disappeared even before coming to America Europeans, this is the most well-preserved sample letter. The letter of Maya is not fully decrypted, the work is still underway.

Immediately you can look at the clothes and weapons of the first colonizers of America.

We recommend to stay on such objects, and do not enter into rooms dedicated to countries, in general. The sense of these rooms is not enough, but you are very tired, looking through them all.

On the Columba Lighthouse there are 160 small spotlights and one huge rotating spotlight, which shine in the sky. Spectacle as they say amazing. Unfortunately, during the excursion it does not show it.

Honestly, he shines not every night, and even staying in Santo Domingo for the night, we can not guarantee that you will see this view of light. It includes only on holidays, Dominican is not such a rich country, they save here on electricity.

About other excursions in Dominican Republic read in our articles (Links below).