Columbus Monuments Pages

Site Search:

Aguada

Camino Playa

Columbus Landing Monument

Francisco Sánchez
1928

Inscription(s)

On the base of the monument is written

DESEMBARCO
COLON EN P.R.
19 NOV^E 1493
AGUADA

and on the other side:

INAUGURACION
MONUMENTO
12 OCT^E 1928

Annotation

In both, Aguada and Aguadilla, is a Parque Colon with almost identical monuments.
In 1893 a cross was erected in Aguadilla on the supposed place where Columbus landed in 1493. In 1918 this monument was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami. Since the Aguadillanos did not re-erect the fallen cross, the Aguadeños took the law into their own hands and raided the fallen cross in Aguadilla and buried parts of it in the sand so it could not be resurrected and proceeded to build their own ten years later, in 1928.
The Aguadilla rebuilt cross was inaugurated in 1937 after the embarrassment of the Aguada cross erection.

The Aguada cross in a small park near the beach. The area is called Guaniquilla and is not visited much by the citizenry. The Aguadilla cross - today also in the municipality of Aguada - 4 km eastwards is much more well known as there are playground facilities nearby.

Information about the Aguada monument is found on the web page Santuario Historico a Colon. The text is translated by Marcos Iglesias:

Historical shrine to Columbus
The Cross-Monument was built in the Guaniquilla de Aguada district by the Patriotic League of Aguada in the year 1925 and it consecrates the site of the discovery of Puerto Rico by the beaches of Aguada; and it also commemorates the site of the Port of the Wells of Aguada and its landing place.
A group of children from Aguada, called "Patriotic League of Aguada" built this Cross between the years 1925 and 1930. The Cross was designed by the master potter, Don Francisco Sánchez and built by the master artisan, Don Diego Sánchez, both native of Aguada.
The Patriotic League donated the Cross-Monument in addition to other properties, to the Municipality of Aguada, transferring the legal deed, before the notary, Luis Antonio Rosario in the year 1933, with the condition that the municipality should maintain and improve it every annually.
In the years 1962-63, and by the initiative of the Committee of History and Culture, they obtained the construction of the busts of Don Eugenio González, Dr. Cayetano Coll and Toste and Dr. Salvador Brau, the historian who were outstanding in the defense of the historical rights of Aguada.
It is important to point out the initiative of the Patriotic League of Aguada, as well as the outstanding participation of the Aguada Club of the Metropolitan Area, in the remodeling and embellishment of the Shrine.

It seems the postcard has the monument reworked, since it is much lower than on the photo.

This monument on postcards

Click here for the postcard(s) and enlargement(s)

Sculptor

Francisco Sánchez

Sources & Information

Information and photo (overview) by Garred Giles of Puerto Rico, April 2003.
Photo (cross) by Bernard Rosenfeld, sent to me by Don Ager, member of the Christopher Columbus Philatelic Society
Santuario Historico a Colon.

Locatie (N 18°23'28" - W 67°11'46") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

Item Code: pr002; Added: 25 November 2006

Your banner here? Click for information.