"Great location and very comfortable place to sit here.."

ERINDA TARTARAJ

"Nice monument!!
Enjoyed the day here."

Ermest Sollaku

"The Plaza de las Batallas commemorates and has at its center the Monument to the Battles that took place in Jaén, namely the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa and the Battle of Bailén.
The monument is the work of Jaén-born sculptor Jacinto Higueras, who presented the model at the 1910 National Exhibition and for which he received the silver medal for the group representing the Battle of Bailén.

The work he presents consists of a trapezoidal plinth on which rises a pedestal with two lateral bronze reliefs alluding to both heroic deeds. The Las Navas sculpture depicts a group of powerful warriors, whose mass seems to suggest the movement of heavy cavalry. In contrast, the Bailén sculpture offers greater dynamism and anecdote, characteristic of a Romantic concept of nineteenth-century sculpture. From the center rises a palm-shaped Egyptian column topped by an Athena-Nike, the Hellenistic goddess of Victory, sculpted in bronze with outstretched wings, personifying Triumph.

The Monument was inaugurated on October 20, 1912. That same day, at ten o'clock in the morning, José del Prado y Palacio, a member of the Cortes who represented the Crown, was received at the Civil Government. Once the procession, which included civil, military, and ecclesiastical authorities, was organized, it paraded through Plaza de Sagasta (now San Francisco), Calle Bernabé Soriano, and Paseo Alfonso XIII (now Paseo de la Estación). The municipal bands of Jaén and Linares marched while playing military marches.

Upon arrival at the Monument, José del Prado y Palacio presented the sculptor Jacinto Higueras with the Cross of Military Merit.

Bishop Juan Manuel Sanz y Saravia then blessed the monument, and immediately afterward, Mass began at an altar set up for the occasion."

Antonio Sáez