Susanna Fontanarossa

Commemorative marble plaque to Suzanna Fontanarossa in the village of Fontanarossa.
The inscription reads Susanna Fontanarossa, the mother of Christopher Columbus, was born in this village.
("In questo borgo nacque Susanna Fontanarossa, madre di Cristoforo Colombo.") Erected 1958 (mcmlviii).

Plaque dedicated to Susanna Fontanarossa

Susanna of Fontanarossa (1435-1489) was most likely the mother of Cristoforo Colombo, a Genoese wool weaver commonly believed to have been Christopher Columbus, a navigator and explorer who is generally credited as a discoverer of the Americas.

Almost nothing is known about her before her marriage to Domenico Colombo in 1445 except that she was born in the hillside village of Monticellu on the then Genoese island of Corsica. She bore 5 children to Domenico: Cristoforo, Bartolomeo, Giovanni, Giacomo, and a daughter named Bianchinetta.

A notarised document of sale in the Genoa state archive contains the Latinate text «Sozana,(quondam) de Jacobi de Fontana Rubea, uxor Dominici de Columbo de Ianua ac Christophorus et Pelegrinus filii eorum», which can be translated as "Susanna was (the daughter) of Giacomo from Fontanarossa of the Bisagno, wife of Domenico Columbus from Genoa, their sons are Cristoforo and Pellegrino." The Val Bisagno was a significant inland district in the ancient Republic of Genoa including the valley of the Bisagno. Thus she was described as 'Susanna from Fontanarossa' within the Val Bisagno, rather than Suzanna Fontarossa.

Today the hilltop village of Fontanarossa, Goretto, Genova, Liguria, in the Val Trebbia (31 km inland from Genoa, at 44°35′10.66″N 9°15′18.80″E) and only 6 km beyond the watershed of the river Bisagno, has a marble stone with the inscription Susanna Fontanarossa, the mother of Christopher Columbus, was born in this village. ("In questo borgo nacque Susanna Fontanarossa, madre di Cristoforo Colombo.").

Little is known about her after 1484. She died before her husband, Domenico.