Letters from Columbus. America in La Casa de Alba

Starting on 19 September, Liria Palace will be home to the first exhibition that explores the American heritage of the Fundación Casa de Alba collection and discovers the family's close links with America from the fifteenth century onwards.

Curated by Consuelo Varela, researcher at the CSIC School of Hispanic American Studies and expert in Christopher Columbus, and Álvaro Romero Sánchez-Arjona, cultural director of Fundación Casa de Alba, the exhibition explores the relationship between La Casa de Alba and America through more than 150 exhibits, including 20 letters signed by Christopher Columbus, which are kept at Liria Palace. This is the largest collection amassed by any institution and exhibited in full for the first time.

Visitors will be able to see a wide variety of objects including documents, pre-Columbus items and objects from the days of the Vice Royalty, portraits and decorative arts, all of great historical and artistic value. These objects offer vital information to explain the journeys undertaken by Columbus, his relationship with the Spanish monarchy, privileges, disputes and the more private facets of his life.

The exhibition also features portraits of Christopher Columbus never exhibited in public before, and, for the first time, you can see the Privilege and the first shield granted to the navigator by Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. This American heritage has been preserved thanks in large part to the Duchess Rosario Falcó, who promoted cultural initiatives during the fourth centenary of Columbus’ arrival in America in 1892 and who will also have her own space at this exhibition.

Image credits:

• Louis Michel Van Loo. Jacobo, Pedro and Ventura Fitz-James Stuart and Columbus. Oil on canvas. Fundación Casa de Alba. Liria Palace
• Casket from New Spain, vice royalty art. 17th century © Fundación Casa de Alba
• Signed letter from Christopher Columbus to Fray Gaspar de Gorricio, a monk in the monastery of Las Cuevas, 1498-1501. Fundación Casa de Alba. Liria Palace