Alexander Fleming

Sculptor: Josep Manuel Benedicto
Materials: white marble stone and Montjuïc stone
Inauguration: January 26, 1956

On January 26, 1956, the anniversary of the arrival of Franco's troops in Barcelona, ​​the bust of Dr. Alexander Fleming (1,881-1,955) was inaugurated, in a niche on a fountain, on the back facade of the headquarters of the Royal Academy of Surgery. Both the bust and the source are the work of José Manuel Benedicto.

It is not strange that the City of Barcelona decided to raise a monument to the memory of the discoverer of penicillin immediately after his death. Alexander Fleming's discovery was the salvation of many people from Barcelona who were attacked by tuberculosis during the post-war years, and when he visited Barcelona a few years before, his arrival was a huge event. Fleming's devotion was maintained for many years, so every August 6th, anniversary of his death, a simple act of homage to the monument was carried out, and frequently anonymous hands or various entities deposited branches of flowers.

Initially it was thought that it should’ve been placed at the Rambla, but the Academy of Medicine asked to have it on the outside wall of its headquarters. On the bust, a tombstone was placed with the simple inscription "Barcelona Sir Alexander Fleming". At the same time as the inauguration, the firefighters adhered another plate dated in 1955 and, later, in 1966, another one of the slaughterhouse workers was added.