Columbus Lighthouse
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1992, Columbus Lighthouse opened in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
It was designed to house the ashes of explorer, Christopher Columbus.
The huge memorial is built in the form of a horizontal cross and has 157 searchlight beams that when turned on project a gigantic cross into the sky. The light is so powerful it can be seen from over 300km away in Puerto Rico.
Tour guide and historian, Samuel Bisono tells Gill Kearsley about the struggle to get the monument built.
(Photo: Columbus Lighthouse. Credit: Gill Kearsley)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what would you tell them? |
| 0:06.0 | Anonymity is our most valuable gift. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm Kirstie Young, and in Young again, I'll be asking my guests what honest advice they would give their past self. |
| 0:16.0 | Believe it when they say that loving yourself is the answer. |
| 0:20.0 | Among those joining me will be Jamie Oliver, Jeda Pinkett Smith and Mel B. |
| 0:24.2 | I knew that I had a voice and I knew that I wanted to say certain things and represent certain things. |
| 0:30.1 | Young again, with me, Kirstie Young, |
| 0:33.0 | listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:39.0 | Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast |
| 0:42.0 | from the BBC World Service with me Jill Kursley. |
| 0:48.4 | I'm taking you back to the Dominican Republic in 1992. Well actually we're going back much earlier than that |
| 0:56.3 | because this story features explorer Christopher Columbus and the events |
| 1:01.7 | surrounding Columbus L, a memorial to house |
| 1:05.0 | to house his ashes. |
| 1:07.0 | And who better to tell the story than a tour guide of the country? |
| 1:10.9 | I was just a teenager about hearing of the construction of the |
| 1:15.3 | lighthouse in the future because it was a phrase I would pay you when the |
| 1:19.6 | lighthouse of Christopher Columbus be finished meaning that it will never happen. |
| 1:24.0 | That was a kind of joke that people used to say once in a while he or as Antelopego. |
| 1:30.0 | Christopher Columbus, he arrived in this island in December 5th, 1492. |
| 1:36.2 | He travelled to South America, he travelled to other islands, but he always lived here. |
| 1:42.1 | That's Samuel Bissono, not only a tour guide, but also a historian in the Dominican |
... |
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