Monumento al Cid Campeador (Sevilla) - Sevilla, Andalucía, España
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Ariberna
N 37° 22.782 W 005° 59.346
30S E 235338 N 4141188
The monument to the Cid Campeador or sculpture of the Cid is a monument that consists of a bronze equestrian sculpture that represents the Cid Campeador , made by Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1927 on a stone base completed in 1929.
Waymark Code: WM16BBY
Location: Andalucía, Spain
Date Posted: 06/21/2022
Views: 9
The statue of El Cid Campeador, Rodrigo Diaz Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar was a Spanish knight born in the year 1043, and he is the national hero of Spain. Located in Seville, with the University nearby and surrounded with historic buildings deep in Spanish Heritage.
There is a lot of pollution in the place and about three years ago it had to be treated.
El Cid is in triumphant mode, reminiscent of a war he had against the Arabs. It is said that once he was dead he won battles, as he was tied and kept on the horse with wood to simulate that he was still alive and reduce the spirits of the enemies.
Agatha Oleksiak is an artist that added a multicolored crochet mesh in 2013. It was the some few time with other monuments in the world.
"History
It was a gift from the Hispanic Society of America to Spain on the occasion of the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition . The founder of said society was Archer Milton Huntington , who was married to the sculptress Anna Hyatt Huntington. She was passionate about the history and culture of Spain and had visited Seville for extended stays.
The idea that the Hispanic Society would donate a monument for the Seville Exhibition must have come from the good relationship that the Hungtingtons had with some organizers of the exhibition such as Vicente Traver or the sculptor Mariano Benlliure . At the beginning of December 1927, the City Council commissioned Benlliure to choose a location. It was decided to place it next to the San Diego roundabout, on an avenue that since 1920 had been labeled Avenida del Cid.
In 1927 the author made a sculpture as a prototype that is in Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina. The same year she will create the statue for Seville.
According to the author, Alfonso XIII told her about Babieca , the Cid's horse:
I always wanted to know what kind of horse El Cid rode. Now, seeing the one you modeled, I agree with you that this is the only horse worthy of having been ridden by the Castilian hero
The plinth commemorates the relationship of the Cid with the city of Seville. The sculpture also appears in the film Citizen Kane , by Orson Welles , which spent several seasons in Seville. In November 2013, the artist Olek, with the support of the Seville City Council, crocheted a suit for the statue of El Cid. This artist had already done the same with the Wall Street bull and other famous statues.
Anne Huntington made several more copies with various destinations: The original was the one erected in front of the headquarters of the Hispanic Society , in New York; Later, at the same time as the one in Seville, others were made for the Balboa Park in San Diego , for the Lincoln Park in San Francisco, and for an avenue in Buenos Aires (on a smaller scale). In 1964 the Hispanic Society commissioned the Spanish sculptor Juan de Ávalos to make a copy, taking a mold from the statue in Seville, a copy bound for the city of Valencia."
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