A six-foot bronze statue of Christopher Columbus now stands in front of the Knights of Columbus building in Naples, unveiled with Gov. Ron DeSantis on hand as part of Florida's America250 celebration marking the nation's semiquincentennial. The statue shows Columbus holding a rolled-up map, and two signs explaining his history and early Spanish exploration in Florida accompany the monument.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida was there to unveil it, according to WINK News, which reports the Knights of Columbus said the statue was funded through private donations and that the site was chosen because of its visibility. The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic men's organization with 60,000 members across Florida, the station notes. In a post marking the occasion, Gov. Ron DeSantis
said Columbus's voyages connected the Old World to the New World and charted a course for the European explorers who later settled Florida, adding that Juan Ponce de León — the Spanish explorer credited with naming Florida — figured into that same story.
Who Sculpted the Naples Columbus
The statue was hand-sculpted by Austin Weishel in Loveland, Colorado, and cast in bronze through the lost-wax process, according to a project page on austinweishel.com. That same page states that Columbus crossed the Atlantic under the Spanish crown in 1492, beginning lasting contact between Europe and the Americas, and that Ponce de León is believed to have sailed with Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 before reaching Florida himself in 1513.
Per DeSantis's own statement accompanying the unveiling, Columbus embarked on his first transatlantic voyage in 1492 under the sponsorship of Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, sailing aboard the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María to reach the Caribbean. His subsequent voyages between 1493 and 1502 are credited, per that same statement, with helping inspire explorers including Ponce de León, Hernando de Soto, and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, whose expeditions shaped Florida's early history. Naples itself was named for Naples, Italy, which DeSantis's office described as a fitting setting to honor the Italian explorer.
Part of a Larger Statewide Effort
The Naples unveiling is one piece of a much bigger statewide project. Florida has approved nearly $2 million for 18 statues honoring America's 250th anniversary, according to the Miami Herald, with 14 completed or bronzed across 12 counties and four more still planned. About $440,000 of that spending has come from Florida's general revenue, the Herald reports, and nearly all of the statues have been produced in Loveland, Colorado — Weishel alone has been commissioned to create nine of them, including the Naples Columbus.
DeSantis has made the rounds for several of these unveilings this year. He revealed a statue commemorating Ponce de León at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee on July 17, with his office stating that the explorer's 1513 arrival in Florida marked the beginning of the state's written history and gave Florida its name, according to a bulletin from Florida's Department of Environmental Protection. He also unveiled a Lady Columbia statue in Lake City, part of the same statewide commemoration, as announced by the Executive Office of the Governor. Florida's America250FL effort overall includes educational initiatives, historical exhibits, commemorative events and public monuments, according to the governor's office.
Columbus Statues Have a Complicated History
Columbus statues elsewhere in Florida have not always enjoyed quiet, ceremonial unveilings. The Miami Herald notes that Columbus's four Atlantic voyages in the late 1400s opened what European colonizers called the New World, even as many American history books downplayed or ignored the harsher realities of conquest that followed. Miami's own Bayfront Park Columbus statue went up on Columbus Day in 1953, funded by a local Italian American group, the Herald reports — and in 2020, seven protesters vandalized the city's Bayside Marketplace Columbus statue and were arrested by Miami police.
Tampa has its own long-standing Columbus monument, standing within Columbus Statue Park at the intersection of Bayshore Boulevard and Platt Street Bridge, according to Creative Loafing Tampa. That statue, sponsored by the Ybor City Rotary Club and designed by Cuban artist Alberto Sabas, was erected on Columbus Day in 1953, the outlet reports. Against that backdrop, the Naples statue adds a newer, privately funded entry to a list of Florida monuments honoring the explorer — one that DeSantis's office frames as a tribute to Italian American heritage and the broader story of exploration tied to the nation's 250th birthday.
