The History Of The Mirador De Colom In 1 Minute

Situated at the bottom of Barcelona’s iconic ‘La Rambla‘ street, across from the waterfront of the Port Vell, the Mirador de Colom is a monument erected in the memory of Christopher Columbus and his visit to Barcelona after his first voyage to the ‘new continent’.
The Mirador de Colom was constructed for the Barcelona Universal Exhibition of 1888 but plans for the monument were initially proposed as early as 1856 by a local known as Antoni Fages i Ferrer. However he was unsuccessful in his drive to gather the funding and approval required for its erection, and it wasn’t until 1881 that the local authorities finally approved the construction of the monument. The design was selected through a competition in which only Spanish artists could enter. The winner was a Catalan, Gaietà Buigas i Monravà. The building commemorates Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to America, after which he returned to Europe and travelled to Barcelona to give news of his voyage to King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I.