Monument to the Battle of Talavera

Standing 27 metres (89 ft) high, the monument consists of three 300 kg plumes of concrete,^[1] representing the Spanish, French and British armies, crowned by a bronze laurel wreath.^[2] The losses at the battle accounted for 7,268 dead French soldiers, 5,363 British and about 1,200 Spanish ones.^[2] The names of the military units that took part in the battle are engraved on the stone.^[3] It was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works.^[4]

It lies on the southern foothills of the Cerro Medellín,^[3] one of the key locations of the battle, next to the current-day A-5 highway. Built from 1989 to 1990,^[4] it was inaugurated on 2 October 1990, during a ceremony attended by a mix of civil and military representatives from Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and West Germany,^[4] including Narcís Serra (Spanish Minister of Defence), José Bono (president of Castilla–La Mancha) and the Belgian, French, British and West German ambassadors.^[5]

Citations

Bibliography

• Vado, Santiago F. del (1990). "Recuerdo de una batalla histórica" (PDF). Revista Española de Defensa. 3 (33). Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa: 68–69. ISSN 1131-5172.
• Llave Muñoz, Sergio de la (2013). "La batalla de Talavera (27-28 julio de 1809): un paisaje para la memoria". In Aldea Celada, José Manuel; López San Segundo, Carmen; Ortega Martínez, Paula; Soto García, Mª de los Reyes de; Vicente Santos, Francisco José (eds.). Los lugares de la historia. Salamanca: AJHIS. pp. 511–527. ISBN 978-84-616-5755-1.