Seville Cathedral, Columbus the Controversial - Littleton, MA - Littleton Independent

Seville Cathedral, Columbus the Controversial

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By Dawny Gershkowitz

First thing I have to do when I get home is throw out my history books.   First I hear that Columbus probably wasn’t from Italy (at least that is what you learn if you ask in Spain).  Our guide insists that no records in Italy corroborate the belief that Columbus was from Genoa.  Next, I learn that Spain’s accounts show Chris’ son was married to a Jewish woman; and yet that same history is vague and fuzzy, as was Columbus, about the family’s origins.

Why is this so?  Today, the Spanish believe that Columbus was descended from Jews.  But in Spain in the late 1400s, Jews were forced to convert to Christianity or leave.  Columbus, in order to advance his explorations, was not likely to receive a commission from the Queen if she were aware that his ancestors were not Christian. Supposedly, Columbus avoided the suspicion that he was a convert or worse, a Marrano—a convert who secretly practiced Judaism—by saying he was from Italy.   

With this surprising information, I continue my tour of the cathedral unsupervised.

The highest point of the cathedral is about 20 stories.  Ramps instead of stairs make the hike to the top fairly easy.  The view is worth the climb; not just the view of the city from up high,  but the bird’s eye view of the cathedral.  Only from here do I begin to grasp the magnificence of this architecture.








View from top of the Seville Cathedral                                                                                                    Bull Fight Arena seen from Cathedral

Flying Buttresses

Flying buttresses shore up walls.  I’ve heard the term but never really understood it before.  A buttress is any architectural support that transfers weight from the walls to a solid pillar.  A flying buttress is a masonry arch extending from the outside of a building to the wall.  Use of the flying buttress expanded in the 1100’s, and Seville's cathedral boasts a defining example of them.

Cathedral Bells

The bell tower is formed by the original minaret of the mosque that once stood here.  In the photo above, behind the top of the bell, you can just see a little of the remnants of the ‘keyhole’ window that was typical of Moorish architecture. Known as the Giralda Tower, this structure is over 350 feet tall and is visible throughout Seville.

Beautiful as the cathedral is, I have the same feeing I often get in cathedrals: small, excluded, a little intimidated. I think how it may have felt for anyone (no matter what the faith or belief), humbled by the struggles of daily life, to see this power and opulence and to have so little in the face of it. 

The feeling takes nothing away from the magnificence of the architecture. 

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More Controversy about Columbus:

Not everyone in the United States celebrates Columbus Day, regardless of his origins.  Descendants of the indigenous population are mindful that Columbus enslaved the Indians he met, was responsible for death and disease, and that saying he 'discovered' America doesn't make sense because there were many millions of people already here.

There is no denying that Columbus and his crew behaved the way that most explorers and conquerors of the 15th century behaved.  As I've traveled, I've found similar histories repeating throughout the world.  In light of our modern-day sensibilities, it seems barbaric to celebrate such conquests.  But taken in the context of history, Columbus was an explorer who opened the gateway to the Americas for Spain. He was looking for the route to India, and found instead the route to America.  Those of us not descended from the Indian population ought to remember that our ancestors followed Columbus to establish our home.

Do we wish the history that followed his arrival were less violent, less brutal?  Surely most of us do.  Would we want today's explorers and ground-breakers to behave differently?  Surely most of us would.  Viewing events in the context of history does not make them right, but isolating them from history to condemn them does not make sense either.

Is it possible to respect the Native population while celebrating the accomplishments of a 15th century explorer?  What do you think?  There are several sources for information to fuel a discussion (or even a heated argument).  With no agenda, I suggest a few: ,

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