Elkano, Mundubira Espazioa

Who was Elkano really and how did he get to lead and accomplish this challenge? What did this expedition mean for his time? How did it influence history and the way that we understand the world today?

On the 8th of September, 1522 he put the nao Victoria, one of the 5 ships from the trading expedition initially commanded by Magallanes, into port in Seville (Spain), after 1125 days of suffering and tenacity. On board, 21 exhausted men who had achieved their goal: a valuable cargo of spices from the Maluku Islands, at the other end of the Earth.

The navigator Getaria Juan Sebastian Elkano captained the ship, saying “we should have the highest esteem for having discovered and encircled the roundness of the world, for we have gone to the West and returned by the East”.

However, despite the achievement, there are no portraits of Elkano, there are no accounts either about his character, only fragments of a life defined by the sea, the knowledge and the ways to make something out of his land, which are on display in this space to build the image of one of the most important navigators of history, the captain of the voyage that changed the world.

Welcome to an exhibition that inspires you to look into the past with a new perspective.