In Burgos, the Academy of Bullfights wants to build a 300-meter-high metal bull as a “national monument”. The idea is acclaim from the far right political party Vox, but opponents call it “a provocation”.
Tourists and residents of Burgos will soon be able to admire a colossal, black metal bull of 300 meters high, if it depends on the far right Vox and the Academia de Tauromaquia (Spanish Academy of Bullfighting). For the time being, it remains an idea.
The Academy of Bullfighting presents the project as a potential tourist attraction. Initially she tried to sell the statue of Madrid, where they refused the offer. In Burgos, the medieval provincial capital in the northern region of Castile and Leon, the plan is supported by Vox, but the Christian-Democratic Mayor Cristina Ayala laughs it away.
The opposition in Burgos does not take the metal bull seriously. The social-democratic Daniel de la Rosa first thought that it was a joke: “In my fourteen years as a municipal councillor, no such deranged idea has been mentioned,” he said in the Spanish press.
The structure, fully funded by private investors, could, according to them, grow into a “national symbol, of the same order as the Eiffel Tower in Paris.” At the same time, the statue would drastically change the medieval cityscape of Burgos, as the bull would be nearly three times as high as the 800-year-old Gothic cathedral, an icon in the city.
The local animal rights organization calls the idea a “provocation”, because in Spain there has been controversy around bullfighting for some time. Opponents call it a “horrific practice” and “a torture for the tens of thousands of bulls killed each year in the arena.” In February, a petition from the citizens’ initiative ‘No es mi cultura’ collected more than 700,000 signatures to have the heritage status removed from bullfighting.
Main Image: El Toro de España. Render Courtesy Academia de Tauromaquia