Monument to Columbus, Bronze statue in Plaza de Colón, Salamanca, Spain

The Monument to Columbus stands in the centre of the gardens of Plaza de Colón, formerly Plaza de los Menores. It consists of a 3.30-metre bronze statue by Eduardo Barrón showing Columbus holding a globe, with navigational charts at his feet, on a stone pedestal bearing Salamanca's coat of arms and reliefs of Diego de Deza and Isabella of Castile.

The monument was part of Spain's commemorations of the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas. Building works began in 1892, and the bronze statue by Eduardo Barrón was unveiled on 9 September 1893 in the Plaza de los Menores, which was renamed Plaza de Colón.

The statue's westward-pointing finger gave rise to a popular rhyme: "¿Hacia dónde apunta Colón? A la calle de Pan y Carbón" ("Where is Columbus pointing? To the Street of Bread and Coal"). The monument stands in the Plaza de Colón, a square renamed after it; it was formerly the Plaza de los Menores.

The monument stands in the centre of the gardens of Plaza de Colón, in Salamanca's Centro district, not on Plaza Mayor. The bronze figure on its stone pedestal can be walked around and viewed from all sides, so the coat of arms and the two lateral reliefs are visible up close.

The statue's westward-pointing finger gave rise to a popular rhyme: "¿Hacia dónde apunta Colón? A la calle de Pan y Carbón" ("Where is Columbus pointing? To the Street of Bread and Coal"). The gesture, meant to suggest the route to the Americas, instead points at a nearby Salamanca street.