The fall and breakage of the Torico de Teruel has opened more questions than certainties about the main symbol of the Mudejar capital. The sculpture restoration report calls into question that the piece that crowns the central square of the city since 1855 is the authentic one. The suspicion, which must be certified in a more in-depth study, has jumped after confirming that the figure was not made of bronze, as was thought until now and the municipal archives indicate, but of an iron alloy that a priori did not exist a century and a half agowhich leads one to think that it is a replica or fake.
The surprise is capitalized and opens a new episode in the series generated around this Teruel emblem after the serious damage suffered last Sunday. The monument collapsed around 7:00 a.m. when municipal technicians removed the 23 ropes anchored with a ring to the top of the column that supports the sculpture, an intervention that was carried out on the occasion of the National Congress of the Rope Bull and that everything indicates that it was the trigger for the accident. The General Directorate of Heritage of the Government of Aragon is studying whether to open a sanctioning file for what happened.
It will have to be a more conscientious study that resolves the open question, but the truth is that It’s been a while since there were serious doubts about the sculpture being made of bronze. The confirmation that it is not has come as a result of its breakage and an analysis of the composition of the material of what it is made of. This has been verified in the company from Zaragoza Metalwork Metalcinspecialized in metal crafts, which has been commissioned to restore the damaged piece: “The Torico that we have is made of cast iron, what is not known exactly is what year, it’s just very good quality“, company sources told this newspaper.
Meeting of the board of spokespersons
The assumption that it is not the original gains strength if one takes into account that the four little bull heads that has the fountain on which the sculpture sits yes they are bronze. “It does not make much sense that the pipes are bronze and the bull is not & rdquor ;, has highlighted the mayor of Teruel, Enma Buja The country, which has advanced the news about the restoration report. “I can only say that the report indicates that the analyzed iron alloy did not exist in the 19th century,” he told this same newspaper.
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“The anomaly that it is not bronze is there, but the suspicion will have to be cleared up in a study in conditions”, pointed out to this newspaper Antonio Jiménez, manager of the Santa María de Albarracín Foundation, which is advising the city council on how to carry out the restoration of the Torico fountain and monument. For this, a group of experts has been constituted , which on Wednesday delivered a first report to the town hall with a series of recommendations, among them, musealize the current Torico and place a replica in its place, stop climbing the column to place the scarf for the Heifer festivities and wear carried out a general study on the history, the state of conservation
Doubts about the authenticity of the Torico will be one of the issues that the mayor will transfer to opposition groups in the board of spokespersons that will be held this afternoon to clarify the causes that caused the collapse of the monument and the work that is being carried out for its restitution.