Fray Bernat de Boïl

Sculptor: Manuel Fuxà,
Restoration: Josep Miret
Architect: Gaietà Buigas
Materials: Stone from Monóvar
Inauguration: June 1, 1888

In memorials of a certain size is often coupled with the honoree character, albeit at a lower level, appear representations of figures related to his career. As noted Carlos Reyero in a study of the memorial sculpture in Spain, some of these figures or groups, usually placed in the pedestal, at first seem subsidiaries, at least from a formal point of view, their situation in a lowest level. However, they can function as leading figures to even have more plastic and visual relevance that commemorated figure and especially because they help to explain the true symbolic value of the monuments. This is the case of the sculptures stationed at the base of the column of the monument to Christopher Columbus.

Given that the iconographic program of patent monument a clear intention to assert the presence of Catalonia in the adventure of discovery and colonization of America, it is logical to have a significant importance the Catalan characters who, in one way or another, were related to Columbus' voyages to the Americas.

Specifically, the figure now before us corresponds to the diplomat, hermit of Montserrat and apostolic vicar of the West Indies fray Bernat de Boïl, born about 1445 and died between 1505 and 1507. As commendatory abbot of San Miguel de Cuixà. Boil accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to America. It is shown standing and dressed in cassock, in an attitude of catechizing an American Indian. Figure semiajaguda feet of church and kissing a cross, is unmistakable, not only for the feathers worn around the head, but also by aboriginal facial features.

The conventional realism that manifests this group, carved in stone of Alicante, does not detract from its author, Manuel Fuxà, which, besides being a very competent technician, was one of the most prolific sculptors of the time of the Restoration. This is a formal realism, as the sculptor, of course, for chronological reasons, made a fictional interpretation.