Captain Margarit

Sculptor: Eduard B. Alentorn, restoration Josep Miret
Architect: Gaietà Buigas
Materials: Limestone
Inauguration: June 1, 1888

In commemorative monuments of a certain size it is common that, along with the honored character, although at a lower level, there appear representations of figures related to his career. As Carlos Reyero noted in a study on the commemorative sculpture in Spain, some of these figures or groups, usually placed on the pedestal seem subsidiary at first sight, at least from the formal point of view, for their situation in a lowest level. However, they can function as main figures so that they even have more visual relevance than the commemorated figure and above all because they help explain the true symbolic value of the monumental complex. This is the case of the sculptural groups located at the base of the column of the Christopher Columbus monument.

Bearing in mind that the iconographic program of the monument shows a clear intention to reivindicate the presence of Catalonia in the adventure of the discovery and colonization of America, it is logical that the Catalan characters who, of one or the other, were related to Columbus's voyages to the American continent.

Specifically, the figure that now occupies us corresponds to the gentleman Pere Bertran and de Margarit (1455-1505), born in the Empordà, who accompanied Columbus on his second trip to America. The character is represented with captain costume and accompanied by an American Indian, shown bare-chested and in an attitude of submission to the figure of the colonizer. The solemn presence of the main image of this group, sculpted in Alicante stone, derives directly from the academic formation of its author, Eduard B. Alentorn, who introduced a certain notion of naturalness.