Updated

Nearly four centuries after Jonas Bronck set foot in America, his birthplace in southern Sweden is finally recognizing its historical link to the New York borough that bears his name.

On Saturday the small town of Savsjo (SEV-sher), deep inside the pine forest of Smaland province, is celebrating the 375th anniversary of the sea captain's 1639 arrival in what is now the Bronx, where he was the first European settler.

Several of his descendants in the U.S will join representatives from the Bronx and local officials in a ceremony where a monument to Bronck will be unveiled.

Bronck's origins have been disputed for decades — the Faeroe Islands still claim him as theirs — but historians recently established he was born in the Savsjo village of Komstad.