Today we are going to be very close to Retirement. At the confluence of Alcalá and O'Donnell streets in front of the park, a statue of the General Baldomero Espartero by horse. It was made by the Catalan sculptor Pablo Gibert y Roig.
Gibert y Roig won, in 1884, a competition called to erect an equestrian statue of Espartero, with his model titled «Glory to the Peacemaker». The sculptor chose the moment in which the Duke of Victoria triumphantly entered Madrid after signing the Vergara Convention, whose document he carries in his left hand while holding the horse's reins.
The equestrian genre was a very popular genre in sculpture in Spain during the 19th century. On this occasion Espartero wears a gala uniform and shows off numerous decorations, including the golden fleece.
The sculpture, elevated on a stepped granite base and a rectangular white stone pedestal, contains a legend on the front:
«To Espartero/The Peacemaker/1839/The Grateful Nation».
On the sides, we can see two decorative reliefs with scenes from The Battle of Bolueta Bridge and Vergara's Embrace.

But we cannot forget the monument's most famous feature: the horse's testicles. Thus, referring to them, the saying "More balls than Espartero's horse" is used to praise someone's courage. So much so that when Granátula de Calatrava, Espartero's birthplace, decided to erect a statue of him in the 90s, the mayor went to see the sculptor, José Lillo Galiani, to his workshop and when he saw the clay model, he told him that it was fine, but that the horse would like more...

With the idea of ​​surpassing those of Madrid and Logroño, both by Gibert and Roig from the late 19th century.

A abrazo.