Port Vell & Columbus Monument: The Gateway to the Mediterranean
Why is it significant?
Lean against the wooden promenade railing of Port Vell and watch the white yachts bobbing in the harbor while gulls wheel overhead in the warm Mediterranean breeze.
Key Facts
| Place | Port Vell & Columbus Monument: The Gateway to the Mediterranean |
|---|---|
| Address | Plaça Portal de la Pau, 08001 Barcelona |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.37580, 2.17780 |
| Part of Walk | Barcelona Gothic & Seaside: Roman Walls, Picasso's Youth, and the Old Port |
| Generated | Generated |
Lean against the wooden promenade railing of Port Vell and watch the white yachts bobbing in the harbor while gulls wheel overhead in the warm Mediterranean breeze. Ahead of you at the foot of Las Ramblas rises the sixty-meter cast-iron Corinthian column of the Columbus Monument, unveiled for the Universal Exposition of eighteen eighty-eight.
At the top of the column stands a seven-meter bronze statue of Christopher Columbus holding a nautical scroll in his left hand while his right arm points out toward the sea. Contrary to popular belief, he is not pointing west toward America—which lies directly behind him across the Iberian Peninsula—but south-southeast toward the Mediterranean and the open sea!
On the quayside behind you stand the Drassanes Reials, the medieval Royal Shipyards with their colossal stone arches, where the galleys that dominated Mediterranean trade and fought at the Battle of Lepanto were constructed.
Take in the golden afternoon light glinting off the harbor waters. You have traversed two millennia of Roman grit, maritime triumphs, and Gothic soul in Barcelona.