The Community recognizes the artistic and historical value of the obelisk and the almost hundred-year-old sculptures that embellish the square that joins the Town Hall and the Alfonso XII Pier
The Government Council of the Autonomous Community gave its approval at its meeting this Thursday to the proposal of the Ministry of the Presidency, Tourism, Culture and Sports to declare the monument to the Heroes of Santiago de Chile as a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC). Cuba and Cavite, located in the square of the same name, between the Town Hall and the Alfonso XII Dock in Cartagena.
The justification is based on its testimonial value, at the national level, of the 1998 Disaster, as well as on the relevant artistic value of the monument in the context of urban sculpture of the time, according to the technical reports of the Historical Heritage Service of the Community.
The declaration also takes into consideration its character as the landmark par excellence of the new representation space of the city, which is configured as a large monumental square flanked by the Palacio Consistorial (1907), the building of the Board of Works of the Port (1923) , the Customs (1927-1930), the Wall of the Sea, the Military Government, the promenade of the Alfonso XII Pier and the port of Cartagena itself.
Taking into account the relevant role that the monument plays in the urban landscape of Cartagena, a protective environment is established that would be made up of the Plaza de los Héroes de Cavite and its visual extension to the sea. In addition, the original sculptural elements in stone that were recomposed forming new monumental milestones installed in military facilities are considered an integral part of the BIC. Specifically, in the gardens of the former Naval Hospital of Tentegorra, the north sculptural group and the personification of the west side are located; and in the dock of the Arsenal the south sculptural group and the personification of the east side are located.
The monument to the Heroes of Cavite and Santiago de Cuba was erected by popular subscription and inaugurated by King Alfonso XIII on November 9, 1923. It commemorates the heroic behavior of the Montojo and Cervera squadrons in the naval battles of Cavite and Santiago de Cuba. Cuba, decisive in the Spanish defeat against the United States and the loss of Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. He witnessed the so-called ‘Disaster of ’98’, which gave rise to a whole generation of intellectuals and the regenerationist current of national life.
Work of Gonzalez Pola
Its author was the sculptor Julio González Pola (Oviedo, 1865 – Madrid, 1929), famous for the realization of numerous and outstanding public monuments. The one in Cartagena responds to the characteristic typological conventions of funerary commemorative constructions, with the use of the obelisk motif as the axis around which the sculptural narrative discourse unfolds.
The structure of the monument is organized around the obelisk-lighthouse (important for its reference to the fleet and the location of the monument facing the sea) and the essentialization of the prows of the ships, elements on which the sculptural groups, tombstones epigraphs and reliefs.
In 1981-82 a demolition-dismantling of the monument was carried out, proceeding to its reconstruction, directed by the sculptor Miguel Ángel Casañ, with the bronze casting of the sculptural elements.
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