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Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Tenerife Avenida Francisco La Roche / Rambla de Santa Cruz |
Monumenta a Su Excelencia el Jefe del EstadoMonument to His Excellency the Head of StateMonumento al Ángel Caído(Monument to the Fallen Angel) |
Juan de Ávalos
1966 |
Large monument with as centerpiece a sculpture group of an angel flying with spread out wings, representing the 'Dragon Rapide' plane in which Francisco Franco departed to initiate the military coup that would trigger the Spanish Civil War. On his back is a male figure representing Francisco Franco (1892-1975), holding a sword in the shape of a Christian cross whose tip points downwards. The design of this figure resembles that of the Angel of Peace, a work by Ávalos carried out two years earlier on the Aguzaderas Hill, Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real), of which only the structure remains after a terrorist attack in 1976.
The base of the sculpture is made of granite, and stands in a pound of approximately 30 meters in diameter with a fountain (not working anymore. Behind the sculpture group is a wall formed by nine fourteen-metre-high pilasters crowned by the coats of arms of the islands and the city, and joined together by eight spaces in the form of a stepped slope, with five spillways each where the water fell.
The monument is popularly known as the "Monument to Franco" or "Monument of the Angel," and also other names occur, such as "Monument to Victory", and the Juan de Ávalos Foundation refers to it as "Monument to Peace". In 2010 the city councol changed the name of the fountain to "Monument to the Fallen Angel," although the work does not represent a fallen angel nor had it been considered as such before.
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