The Plaza del Punto needed a transformation within the Monumentalization Plan that had been forged in the City Council and it was decided to raise in that square a monument that at the same time serve as an emotional memory of the meeting at that point of the two Hermandades rocieras of Huelva, after his return from Almonte and thus make special mention in our capital of a sign of identity Almonteña, which contributed to beautify the aforementioned site of our city.
On April 15, 2005 was born the Commission Pro-Monument to Our Lady of El Rocío, chaired by Aurelia Cazenave, chambermaid of the Hermandad de Huelva. It took place a long way, although at the same time of excited Marian longing, which ended on March 20, 2011 with the signing of the document of transfer to the city, with the president of the Hermandad de Huelva, Juan Ferrer, and the first mayor of the City Council of Huelva, Pedro Rodriguez, as protagonists.
The Pro-Monument Commission and the City Council placed their trust in Elías Rodríguez Picón. For six years the Rocío master worked on the achievement of an artistic and religious dream. The monument to the Virgen del Rocío is a model of sobriety, of harmonious rhythm, of elegant proportions (the work is approximately 4.30 meters high, with 4.50 meters deep and 3 meters wide, and weighs about 6,000 kilos) of serene balance, of harmonious ethnographic claims that denote an extraordinary aesthetic experience.
Made in patinated bronze, the sculptural group represents a scene of the procession of the Lirio de las Marismas, on Pentecost Monday, with the Lady carried on her shoulders from her Heavenly Queen’s litter by sixty figures from which inner religious gleams emanate, giving them a strange charm. The contemplator notices that they breathe in all of them a harmonious spiritual contact that is united to the Virgin.
Not having a base and being at the same level, when the rociera cohort suddenly emerges from the ground, the contemplator of the group feels like one more rociero and a strange suggestion takes hold of him through the eloquent simplicity of the planes. What is curious and great at the same time, is that the artist has used real characters to embody the large group.
The work also carries many symbols, such as the medals of the Hermandades de Nuestra Señora del Rocío de Huelva and Emigrantes. The figure is crowned by an artistic canopy with which the sculptor finished off his magnificent sculptural ensemble.
The Virgen del Rocío Monument in Huelva is located in the Plaza del Punto.
