La Rabida is a center of Christopher Columbus history. The La Rabida monastery is most famous in this town because it is where Christopher stayed for two years before departing on his first journey to the Americas. Columbus was unsuccessful in petitioning the king and queen individually at first, but the guardian friar Franscisco Jiminez de Cisneros stepped in to help Columbus finally have his proposal heard. The monastery itself was built in the late 14th and early 15th centuries but still holds some of the Moorish architecture. The location has been used for much longer because of its high location above the river. The monastery has quite the display of exploration artifacts. My favorite was a room with the current country flags and a box of soil from each that Columbus' voyages lead to founding. In 1992 there was a big celebration for the 500 year anniversary of discovering the new world. All the areas around the monastery were fixed up and even an amphitheater was built that currently is a bit creepy because it looks like nothing really happens there now. Next we went to see the life-size replicas of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. The Nina and Pinta are smaller and identical with a crew of only 30 men. The Santa Maria was larger to store most of the supplies and had a crew of 40. It was very cool to be able to climb aboard the ships and get a feel for what it was like to be part of the crew. These ships were not for the faint of heart to cross the Atlantic. Around the ships was a replica of a "native" town and an area that showed what a market in Spain would be like in Columbus' time to prepare for the long and unknown journey.
A monument being repaired.
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