Monument to the Encierro

• Author: Rafael Huerta Celaya.

• Materials and technique: Patinated bronze on a granite and reinforced concrete platform.

• Measurements: 1,100 x 400 cm.

• Location: Avenida de Roncesvalles, at its junction with Avenida de Carlos III.

• Date of installation: 21 April 2007 (inauguration).

The monument to the Encierro, which since its inauguration in 2007 has become one of the main signs of identity of the city, has a long history that began in 1991 and culminated in 2007 with the execution by Rafael Huerta of the definitive project , in the framework of the process of pedestrianisation and beautification of the Avenida de Carlos III.

The sculptural ensemble is made up of nineteen figures - six bulls inspired by the Victorino Martín brand, three steers and ten runners - which immortalise in patinated bronze a snapshot of the fast run as it passes along the stretch of Calle Estafeta, whose gently sloping cobbled floor simulates the surface of the monument. The group shows the different lances that take place during the running of the bulls, from the runners who open the race and pull the pack, to those who have already been overtaken by the bulls, without forgetting the runners who fall to the ground - one of them a self-portrait of the artist - and those who have been overtaken by the bulls. It stands on a reinforced concrete platform covered with tiles identical to those on the floor of the Avenida de Carlos III.

The Biscayan sculptor Rafael Huerta demonstrates his ability to capture a precise moment, creating the sculptural group as if it were a snapshot of the race, whose overall composition responds to the plastic need to express action and offer the spectator multiple points of view. To all this is added his technical skill in the balance of volumes, especially evident in the herd of bulls and steers; to achieve this difficult interplay of masses, the artist welds the figures together in such a way that while the sculptural group gains in cohesion, it also achieves plastic lightness, greater realism, expressiveness and tension. This can be seen in a view of the race on the cobblestones, which sample shows all the tension of the herd in full gallop.