Monument to Mariano Benlliure

Paradoxically, Benlliure, who created so many important monuments everywhere, some in Valencia, many in Madrid, and all over the world, lacked one dedicated to his city, Valencia. Taking advantage of the conversion into a landscaped area of the site of the Gothic Palace of the Barons of Alaquàs, adjacent to the parish church of Santa Creu – formerly the Carme Church and located between it, the Parish House, Pare d’Orfes Street and the part of Roteros Street at its junction with Plaça del Carme – a monumental fountain measuring 2.36 by 2.47 m was erected.

On the obverse, facing most of the square garden, the “Fountain of the Children” of the master is reproduced in bronze, the original in plaster is exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia and from which the emptying of this monument was obtained – with versions equivalent to the residence of the Marchioness of Pelayo, in Solares (Santander) in La Alameda de Osuna (Madrid); in Cádiz -this one in ceramics-, and in the garden of the sculptor’s house in Madrid, disappeared, having been completed on the other side, or reverse, which looks at the Parish House, through a brief space in the garden, with a casting in bronze of the relief altarpiece by Mariano Benlliure made by Joaquín Sorolla for the signage of the Plaza de Marià Benlliure (before the Ball).

The original keeps the neighboring School (Faculty of Fine Arts today) of Fine Arts – and from which the foundry was removed – which provided the City Council for the destination it has received, in this short, simple and endearing monument-fountain.

The replacement of Mariano Benlliure by Sorolla was simultaneous and correlative to that of Sorolla by Mariano Benlliure, both on the joyous occasion that, for having won both the highest international awards, they received the double tribute of the city where they were born, dedicating street and square that bear their names, carved on these plaques, with the respective portraits in mid-relief in profile.

The fountain-monument was inaugurated at the July 1962 fair, with the solemnity given by the presence of the town hall and representations of artistic, cultural and Valencian entities.

Dades bàsiques