The bronze equestrian statue of El Cid Campeador

In 1929, the Hispanic Society of America bestowed a gift of a bronze equestrian statue representing the legendary hero El Cid Campeador. The work was created by Anna Hyatt Huntington, who was passionate about the history and culture of the country. The idea for the gift came from the good relationship between the Huntington marriage and organizers of the Ibero-American Exposition, such as Vicente Traver and the sculptor Mariano Benlliure. The city requested the choice of location from Benlliure, and it was decided to place the monument next to the glorieta de San Diego on an avenue labeled since 1920 as avenida del Cid.

Huntington created a sculpture as a prototype in 1927, which is found in Brookgreen Gardens, and created the statue for Seville that same year. The bronze statue sits on a stone pedestal finished in 1929. The pedestal commemorates the relationship between El Cid and the city of Seville. The sculpture also appears in the film Citizen Kane by Orson Welles, who spent several seasons in the city.

Huntington made several other copies for various destinations, including the headquarters of the Hispanic Society in New York, Balboa Park in San Diego, Lincoln Park in San Francisco, and an avenue in Buenos Aires. In 1964, the Hispanic Society commissioned the sculptor Juan de Ávalos to create a copy by taking a mold of the Seville statue for the city of Valencia.

In November 2013, the artist Olek, with the support of the local authorities, created a crochet suit for the statue of El Cid. The artist had previously performed similar actions on the Bull of Wall Street and other famous statues.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons