New statue in the centre of Cartagena in honour of fictional character Capitán Alatriste

A homage to writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte and the soldiers who fought in Spain’s Golden Age

On Friday 17th July the city of Cartagena added to its already impressive catalogue of statues in public squares with the unveiling in the Plaza del Cuartel del Rey of a monument to fictional character Capitán Alatriste, a fictional character created by widely the hugely popular acclaimed local author Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

Diego Alatriste y Tenorio is a swashbuckling former soldier turned contract killer in 17th century Madrid and, as with many of Pérez-Reverte’s creations, the influence of the author’s roots in Cartagena is suggested if not explicit. For this reason, it is he who has been chosen as a tribute to the writer, as Mayoress Noelia Arroyo explained at the official presentation ceremony of the statue. At the same time, homage is paid to the Spanish military men who embarked in the past on voyages of discovery, conquest and fortune hunting to the New World.

Pérez-Reverte explains that although he was already fascinated by the period known in Spanish history as the “Siglo de Oro”, it was when, in one of his 12-year-old daughter’s textbooks, he saw the “Golden Century” summarized in just a page and a half that he decided to dig deeper for his next novel. His “beloved” Cartagena, he says, gave him the route into writing about the men who forged that age of splendour on behalf of their country.

Placed opposite the naval arsenal in Cartagena, the statue is 2.4 metres tall and was created by sculptor Salvador Amaya, who based the design on a sketch by the painter Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau. It stands on a pedestal formed by blocks of stone from the old 18^th-century jetties of the Carsenal, donated by the armed forces to the Town Hall. On one of them is a dedication written by Pérez-Reverte himself to the “Spanish soldiers who over the centuries set sail from Cartagena to fight far from their country.

The writer’s works have sold over 30 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 40 languages, and at the unveiling of the statue the band of the historic Tercio de Levante military unit played the music from the film adaptation of Alatriste, composed by the Jumilla musician Roque Baños.

Image: Ayto Cartagena