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Oviedo: From Malfalda to Woody Allen, the path of statues

[Tripper: Paola]

IT

Like the ball of wool that Ariadne gave to Theseus to trace the road, the tourist needs an itinerary to follow in order to rattle off the visit of the city according to a common thread.
Oviedo offers a very particular one: the path of its statues.

Mafalda at the San Francisco park

La Torera - San Francisco park

You can start from the square in front of the cathedral where the statue called "La Regenta" stands proudly. The beautiful female figure, created by Mauro Álvarez Fernández, is inspired by the eponymous novel by Leopoldo Alas. The girl in the novel is Donna Ana, wife of Don Victor Quintanar, former regent of the city court, therefore known to all as the Regenta. Her husband had a feeling of friendship rather than love towards the girl, so the young woman always lived between loneliness and boredom. Sculpture transfers all the girl's feelings perfectly to those who admire her.
Moving to the square of Porlier, the convinced traveler will not fail to take a picture with "The return of Williams B. Arensberg", a sculpture that people have renamed "The traveler". The statue is made of bronze and depicts a middle-aged gentleman wearing a coat and hat, and is surrounded by a bag, a suitcase and an umbrella.
A little further on, in Calle Pelayo, in front of the Campoamor theater, the city dares, presenting irreverent "Culis Monumentalis". The bronze and granite sculpture is the work of Eduardo Úrculo, and represents the rounded buttocks of a donkey of monumental proportions.
Entering the Park of San Francesco, you come across the Torera. The sculpture celebrates the photographer Josefa Carril, with her work tools: the camera, the tripod, a chair and a cardboard horse that she used to distract the children while photographing them. The name of the statue derives from the shoe that the photographer wears: low, black, decorated with a small bow, the one typically used by bullfighters.
Still in the park, sitting comfortably on a bench is Mafalda, the character invented by the Argentine cartoonist Quino. Mafalda, dressed in red, smiles ironically and seems to invite you to sit next to her.
Leaving the park towards the pedestrian area you come across what is perhaps the most international statue of all: the one dedicated to Woody Allen. The bronze work was created by Vicente Martínez-Santarúa to commemorate the well-known American director who in 2002 received the Prince of Asturias of the Arts Award from the city.
The commemorative plaque next to the statue shows some words of Allen himself: "Oviedo is a delightful, exotic, beautiful, clean, pleasant, peaceful and pedestrian city. It is as if it did not belong to this world, as if it did not exist ... Oviedo is like a fairy tale. ".
And honestly, we agree with Allen's words.