The Source of the Catalan Genius or the Angel of Progress

Similar, in that air of arcane when not melancholic bohemian, the Source of the Catalan Genius, more known, possibly and based on the figure that the crown, as the Angel of Progress, shows another of those unexpected 'fascicle sapientiae' of symbolism, which sometimes go unnoticed, confused with the monumental mirage of the whole.

Perhaps it is not coincidental, either, that in this, its location in the Plaza del Palau, the slender, luciferic or perhaps better, Promethean angel holding a five-pointed star on his head as a royal crown - similar to that other , much more melancholy, of course, that a sorrowful old tomb graces with the rust of the years, located in the cemetery attached to the Soria church of the Virgen del Espino, not far from where the mortal remains of Leonor rest, the first wife of the famous poet Don Antonio Machado- look with nostalgic desire towards the nearby obelisk in whose summit Columbus, the Great and every day more unknown Admiral, points with his finger the port of Barcelona and that brave ocean sea, whose crossing killed the fantastic creatures that populated the medieval imagination - another sea of feelings and fears, as a metaphorical unconscious - leaving completely obsolete the superstitious' non plus ultra 'of the sailors' banners.

It is not surprising, then, that talking about references, banners and blazons, that in the front of the pedestal, camouflaged between the vigilant heads of lion from whose mouths comes a jet of representative water, as they say, of the four rivers most significant of Catalonia -such as those of Paradise: the Ebro, the Segre, the Llobregat and the Ter-, the old motto of the stale and millenary Asturian family of the Kauros, Coiros or Quirós -whose motto was: 'after God the Quirós' house- surprise the observer, because not in vain, the fountain is dedicated to the memory of the former Governor General: Francisco Bernaldo de Quirós, Marquis of Campo Sagrado, promoter of the brought to the city of the waters from the Sierra Moncada

Curiously, at the feet of the angel, an anchor is observed. And attached to it, some chains whose rings are closed on the tips of the wings, perhaps suggesting that genius -catalán or not- and progress, like wine, should be taken or executed with prudential moderation.

After many avatars and damages -including those of the Civil War-, the monument was restored by Frederic Marés. That Marés, precisely, that in 1946, he founded one of the most important artistic museums in the world: the Marés Museum.

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NOTICE: originally published, in my blog MEMORIES OF A PILGRIM, although the photographs and the video, are unpublished in Steemit. Both the text, photographs, and video (with the exception of music, reproduced under a YouTube license) are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry can be found at the following address: https://jc347.blogspot.com/2015/04/la-casa-dels-cuatre-cats-y-el-angel-del.html

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