Barcelona to Prim

Project: Josep Fontseré
Sculptor: Lluís Puiggener (original)
Reconstruction: Frederic Marès
Materials: Bronze on stone pedestal with bronze sculpting and two white marble plaques
Inauguration: May 26, 1887

It took seven years to make the monument to General Juan Prim (Reus, 1814 - Madrid, 1870). Agreed in January 1880, it was necessary to make a contest (to which eleven projects were submitted) that Lluís Puiggener won. The first stone was put on September 25, 1882. As a budget, the City Council allocated the money obtained from the raffle of a plot of the Paseo de San Juan, 124,919 pesetas.

Part of the eight tons of bronze that were necessary to raise the monument came from fifteen mortars preserved in the castle of Montjuïc, which were taken to the Comas smelter, where it was carried out. The base of the monument was the work of José Colomé. The work was inaugurated on May 26, 1887, date of the anniversary of the peace achieved by Prim in the war in Morocco. A son of the murdered general attended.

On December 20, 1936, the monument was demolished by the Juventud Libertarias de Gracia; Civil War was lived and there was bronze to make ammunition. After the war, Frederic Marès was commissioned to rebuild the monument, but only one leg of the horse was preserved and a "similar but not equal" reproduction was made. However, if one contemplates two photos of the two monuments, that of Puiggener and that of Marès, he sees that he certainly tried to make it look alike, although the first one was more attractive.