Pinos Puente

Camino Mozárabe

GranadaAndalucía

Descriptive two-member compound. Pinos, locative plural of Latin pinus ('pine, resinous tree'), refers to the historical forest formation of Aleppo pine of the meadow. Puente, from the Latin pons, commemorates the famous medieval bridge of the Cubillas river, setting of the encounter between Christopher Columbus and the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.

The Roman-medieval bridge of Pinos Puente, built in the 11th century on foundations of an earlier Roman bridge, spanned for ten centuries the flow of the Cubillas river in the northern meadow of Granada. The greatest historical event of the place dates from January 1492: Christopher Columbus, returning disenchanted from the court of the Catholic Monarchs in Santa Fe after the rejection of his navigational project, was reached at this bridge by a messenger from Isabel I asking him to return. The queen, persuaded by Luis de Santángel, had decided to finance the expedition. The encounter at Pinos Puente was the act prior to the Capitulation of Santa Fe (17th of April 1492), which authorised the Columbian voyage of the discovery of America.

Evolution of the name

  1. pinus + pons Latin 1st–5th centuries
  2. Pinos Puente medieval Castilian from the 13th century

Reflections, to the letter

Half the name is something you can walk across: the Puente de la Virgen, spanning the Cubillas ravine with three great horseshoe arches on foundations reaching back to Visigothic times and rebuilt by the Andalusis in the 11th century. Here, in late January 1492, a messenger from the Catholic Monarchs caught up with Christopher Columbus to say yes. To cross it is to read the whole word: the vega's pines and the bridge that became their surname.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Glossary

Capitulation of Santa Fe
Agreement signed on the 17th of April 1492 in the royal camp of Santa Fe (Granada) between the Catholic Monarchs and Christopher Columbus, which authorised the navigator to undertake the voyage of exploration towards the Indies by the western route. The document, drafted in Castilian on vellum, granted Columbus the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea, viceroy of the lands discovered and the tithe of the profits. Originals preserved in the General Archive of the Indies (Seville) and in the Archive of the Crown of Aragón (Barcelona).

Sources

  • Ladero Quesada, M.Á. — La conquista de Granada

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Camino Mozárabe

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Baena
  3. Luque
  4. Alcaudete
  5. Frailes
  6. Alcalá la Real
  7. Atarfe
  8. Pinos Puente
  9. Granada
  10. Quéntar
  11. La Peza
  12. Guadix
  13. Fiñana
  14. Alboloduy
  15. ··· toward the start