Located in the Plaza del Progreso, it consisted of a bronze statue of Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, architect of the Liberal reforms in Spain in the 1830s, and a stone pedestal.

A work by José Gragera, commissioned after the death of Mendizábal in 1853, it was cast in bronze by Eck & Durand in Paris.

[2] Following a series of delays regarding the indecision on the location of the monument, works to install it in the Plaza del Progreso started in 1868.

[3] The monument was unveiled on 6 June 1869,[4] during a ceremony attended by the General Serrano and a small boy, grandson of Mendizábal.

[4][5] Following the entry of the Francoist troops in Madrid in 1939 towards the end of Spanish Civil War, the monument was toppled from its location.