COLUMBUS MONUMENTS PAGES

Place Artist Date Type
Aguadilla (Puerto Rico)
Cross (1937)		 1937 Cross

  Postcard

Inscriptions:

On the base of the monument a plaque is mounted with the text in Spanish and English:

PARA CONMEMORAR EL DESEMBARCO EN ESTAS
PLAYAS .... ALMIRANTE DON CRISTOBAL
COLON EL DIA 19 DE NOVIEMBRE DEL 1493

ESTE MONUMENTO FUS ERECTO POR LA JUNTA
DEL CUARTO CENTENARIO DEL DESCUBRIMIENTO DE
PUERTO RICO EL DI 19 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 1893.

RECONSTRUCTION POR LA ADMINISTRACION DE RE-
CONSTRUCCION DE PUERTO RICO EN EL AÑO 1937

TO COMMEMORATE THE LANDING OF CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS ON NOVEMBER 19, 1493

THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED ON NOVEMBER
19, 1893 BY THE BOARD OF THE FOURTH CENT-
ENARY OF THE DISCOVERY OF PUERTO RICO.

RECONSTRUCTED BY THE PUERTO RICO RECONS-
TRUCTION ADMINISTRATION IN THE YEAR 1937

Notes:

At the fourth centenary of the discovery of Puerto Rico, in 1893, a cross was erected in Aguadilla, the supposed landing place. This monument felled down by an earthquake, followed by a tsunami on 11 October 1918, the remains are still visible.
After the neighbouring town of Aguada had erected a similiar cross in 1928, saying that Aguada was the 1493 landing place, in Aguadilla the cross was reconstructed.
The exact location of the landing is still under great discussion, but the best guess by knowledgable seamen is that Aguadilla Bay was the best location for a sailor with 19 ships and 1500 men to feed and water.

This reconstructed Aguadilla Cross is erected in 1937, after the erection of the Aguada cross which is identical in dimension in 1928.

This painting hangs in the foyer-staircase of the Aguadilla city hall commemorating the landing of Columbus on the Puerto Rico shores in 1493.

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Introduction page © 2003 Peter van der Krogt