The Monument to the Discoverers, also known as the 400th Anniversary Column, is a monument for which the Provincial Deputation of Huelva tasked Ricardo Velázquez Bosco with the erection of a memorial to Columbus and the explorers of the Americas. It was unveiled on October 12, 1892, to mark the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in America. The original project consisted of a multi-body hexagonal pedestal, which served as the base of a column topped by an Earth globe.
Between 1963 and 1967, the monument underwent a restoration by Luis Martínez Feduchi, which substantially altered the original work. By the turn of the 21st century, the monument was in a dire state of conservation. It was declared bien de interés cultural in 2008.
A new restoration, intending to consolidate the monument by installing a core of reinforced concrete and recovering elements of the original work, such as an Earth orb or a crown, took place in the 2010s. Works finished by 2014, and the monument was re-inaugurated on 31 July 2014.
Three buried sculpted heads of native americans - reportedly representing the aztec, maya and taíno civilizations - part of the original monument were found out by 2011 during the disassembly of the column.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nik Frost
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