Monument to the Capitulations of Santa Fe

In the middle of the square, Isabella I of Castile, seated on her throne, listens to Christopher Columbus as he presents his plan. The bronze group is the work of Mariano Benlliure; it was cast in Rome in 1892 for the fourth centenary of the first voyage and first stood on the Paseo del Salón, arriving here in the early 1960s.

1Two agreements in the same camp

The monument commemorates the Capitulations of Santa Fe, signed on 17 April 1492 in the royal camp set up outside Granada: the Catholic Monarchs granted Columbus titles and rewards if he reached new lands by sailing west. But months earlier, in that same camp, something decisive had been agreed. On 25 November 1491, Boabdil’s envoys and the monarchs settled the surrender of Granada.

Those Capitulations of Granada were generous: Muslims would keep their religion, their mosques, their judges and their property, and could emigrate to North Africa if they wished. On 2 January 1492 Castilian troops took possession of the Alhambra, and the last Muslim kingdom in the peninsula came to an end.

That spirit did not last: from 1499 came forced conversions, the burning of Arabic books and, years later, the banning of the Morisco language and customs.

That same year, on 31 March, Granada was also where the monarchs signed the decree expelling all Jews who refused to convert. In just a few months, the newly conquered city saw three decisions that would shape the history of Spain and the Americas.

2What to look for

• Columbus’s gesture as he unfolds his plan before the queen.
• The bronze relief on the pedestal.
• The inscriptions with names of the period, such as that of Ferdinand the Catholic.