Columbus egg

In Sant Antoni de Portmany there is an avant garde white sculpture that is called Columbus's Egg.

Inside the egg is a hole that holds a small metal sculpture of the Santa Maria, the ship that Columbus used to sail to the Americas.

This is a monument to the discovery of the America by Columbus.

The story is that when Columbus was trying to find financial help for his trip to discover the Far East, he was dining with some Spanish nobles, who were skeptical about his proposed voyage. Columbus asked for an egg to be brought to him and placed it on the table. He bet the nobles that they could not make the egg stand on its end, but he would do it without any help from anyone. All of them tried and failed. Columbus then took the egg and tapped it gently on the table, breaking it slightly. This allowed the egg to stand on its end. They then understood that once somebody had done a feat once, then everyone would know how to do it.

Another reason for the monument is that one Ibicenco writer wrote a book in which he claimed that Columbus was an Ibicenco.