A controversial plan to construct a giant bull statue in Spain has been called “absurd” by critics.
The Spanish Academy of Bullfighting has proposed that a 300m-high metal bull be built in a Spanish city as a symbol of the bullfighting tradition.
The organisation would cover the construction costs to build the statue, dubbed “The Bull of Spain”, on public land donated by the chosen municipality.
Jorge Álvarez, president of the bullfighting academy, said that the bull will attract tourism and boost employment in its host city.
The Spanish capital, Madrid, rejected hosting the project suggested by the Academy of Bullfighting.
However, in the northern city of Brugos, the populist right-wing Vox party may be on board with building the bull statue.
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 at almost three times the height of the 112m Gothic Burgos Cathedral, with panoramic observation decks in the bull’s horns and restaurants and souvenir shops built below.
Martínez-Acitores said: “It would be an opportunity to put Burgos on the global map,” reported The Times.
Others in Burgos are less keen to grab the giant project by the horns.
Former mayor of Burgos and leader of the opposition, Daniel de la Rosa, wrote on X: “You won't believe it, but I assure you it's no joke.
“In my 14 years as a corporate employee at [Burgos], there was never an idea as absurd as the one Vox made public today...
“We'll have to take it with a pinch of salt.”
The bullfighting tradition, or torero, is greatly debated in Spain, with animal rights group Peta calling the practice a “tradition of tragedy” and “ritualistic slaughter”.
Bullfighting has been banned in the Canary Islands since 1991 and was also banned in Catalonia in 2010, although the Catalan ban was later overturned by the Spanish Constitutional Court.
However, large, black, silhouettes of bulls, originally created as a roadside advertisement for Osborne's Veterano brandy, still stand on hilltops and at the side of highways in Spain.
The academy said the statue –Toro de España – is a chance to create a recognisable landmark, similar to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and New York’s Statue of Liberty.
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