A controversial plan to construct a giant bull statue in Spain has been labelled “absurd” by critics. The Spanish Academy of Bullfighting has proposed building a 300-metre-high metal bull, dubbed “The Bull of Spain”, as a symbol of the bullfighting tradition. The organisation would cover construction costs, with the statue to be built on public land donated by the chosen municipality.
Jorge Álvarez, president of the bullfighting academy, said the bull would attract tourism and boost employment in its host city. The Spanish capital, Madrid, has already rejected the project. However, in the northern city of Burgos, the populist right-wing Vox party may support the idea. Fernando Martínez-Acitores, Vox’s deputy mayor of Burgos, said the structure could be a “tourist attraction” for the city.
The bull statue would stand almost three times the height of the 112-metre Gothic Burgos Cathedral, with panoramic observation decks in its horns and restaurants and souvenir shops built below. Martínez-Acitores said: “It would be an opportunity to put Burgos on the global map,” as reported by The Times. However, former mayor of Burgos and opposition leader Daniel de la Rosa described the idea as “absurd” on social media.
Bullfighting remains a deeply debated tradition in Spain. Animal rights group Peta calls it a “tradition of tragedy” and “ritualistic slaughter”. While banned in the Canary Islands since 1991 and in Catalonia since 2010 (though later overturned by the Constitutional Court), large black bull silhouettes, originally advertisements for Osborne brandy, still dot the Spanish landscape.
The academy says the statue, Toro de España, could become a recognisable landmark akin to the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in New York.
