The Bear and The Strawberry Tree - Madrid, Spain - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

For the International Stamp Exhibition in Madrid 2000, this stamp was issued, showing the front of the Principal Post Office of Madrid, with the sculpture of "The Bear and the Strawberry-Tree"

-- Source

Although both the post office and the bear statue are shown on the stamp, they are not located next to each other. Thus, a photo can be taken of one of the other, but not both at the same time.

The following information about the bear statue is from the My Far & Away Travel Itineraries website:

Located in Madrid's most famous and most central square, La Puerta del Sol, sits one of Madrid's most important statues, El Oso y El Madrono (the Bear and the Strawberry Tree). The Oso and Madrono is the official symbol of the city.

No one seems to know exactly why the bear and the strawberry tree are the city's icons except that there used to be many bears in the fields around Madrid, and the strawberry tree might actually be representative of the hackberry tree that once was in abundance around the city. Another theory is that following a 13th-century dispute over hunting rights on the land that was owned by the church, an agreement was reached that the church owned the soil, but the people of Madrid owned everything above the ground, namely game. Then, the symbol of Madrid was born -- a Bear (the church's emblem) sniffing a tree. The 20-ton bear statue was constructed in 1967 by sculptor Antonio Navarro Santa Fe and is a popular gathering spot.

Stamp Issuing Country: Monaco Date of Issue: 2000 Denomination: 3.80 F - Monegasque franc Color: Blue, yellow, white, brown Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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