Design for Unamuno Monument in Salamanca

In February 1964, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Miguel de Unamuno, the Salamanca Town Hall presented a motion to pay homage to the writer—specifically, to erect a monument in his honor. It was not until August 1965 when they requested Pablo Serrano to complete a series of proposals involving the creation of urban structures to be conceived together with architect Antonio Fernández Alba. In his efforts to capture the spirit of Unamuno, Serrano presented an image which, wrapped in a rectoral gown, "is born and grows from the same earth or is attached to it." This image was built from a juxtaposition of abstract, concave, and convex volumes which create a huge volume from which the face of Unamuno, with a look of anguish, emerges. Intending to join the ideas of statism and dynamism, Serrano proposed the large bronze image to be situated next to the Ursulas Convent (Convento de las Úrsulas) and in front of the house where the sculptor lived, right "at the cross-section of two paths, ascending and descending, as in the search for truth." The monument was inaugurated on January 31, 1968.