Pyrenees Guide

A work by Mariano Benlliure, it is inaugurated with the attendance of the Monarchs of Spain, within the commemorative acts of the Centenary of Zaragoza Siegues. Its topographic situation is fully justified. This place was one of the most important exclaves of the Zaragoza defence against the French. In this same year of 1908 the chapel of the heroines was consecrated within the nearby church of Our Lady of the Portillo.

This is a work of female exaltation, where homage is paid to the women who bravely fought during the War of Independence. The figure of Agustina de Aragon arises on a pedestal in a very theatrical pos, dressed in a second lieutenant’s cassock and leaning on the breech of a canon. At her feet there is a “baturro” (Aragonese peasant) with a guitar, wearning a laurel crown; on the rear of the pedestal, the allegories of Zaragoza and the French Empire are represented with the lion and the eagle. Mother Rafols, the Countess of Bureta, Manuela Sancho and Maria Agustin are also represented in the monument, all of them outstanding heroines of the Siege.

Address: Plaza del Portillo