Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary

This guide to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Havana turns on a marble plaque near the altar that once promised the remains behind it would rest for a thousand years, said to be Christopher Columbus. It follows the bones from Columbus's 1506 death in Spain, across the Atlantic to Santo Domingo, and into this cathedral in 1796 when Spain feared losing the neighboring island. It then traces an 1877 discovery back in Santo Domingo that cast doubt on whose remains Havana had actually been honoring all along. Stand in front of that empty plaque and consider what it was really guarding.