The original sculpture, a work by the Spanish sculptor Agustín Querol, depicted Bolognesi clinging to a flagpole with his head bowed, about to collapse, at the same moment that he was killed in battle.

But the monument, the work of the Spanish artist Agustín Querol, took two years to complete and only in early 1905 did it arrive by ship, in blocks that were assembled under the direction of the worker Enrique Días.

The ceremony was attended by one of the survivors of the defense of Arica, the Argentinian Roque Sáenz Peña, General of the Peruvian army who, for the military parade, received the command of the line.

[1] Gentlemen: The Nation has fulfilled a most noble duty by perpetuating in granite and bronze the monument of admiration and gratitude that all Peruvians have erected in our hearts to that handful of brave men who, commanded by the heroic Colonel Bolognesi, saved in El Morro of Arica, with their generous sacrifice, the national honor.It was then the turn of Sáenz Peña, who, in front of the statue of his former boss, was seized with emotion and only said: "Present, my colonel!".

Provocation or challenge to death, superb phrase of man, condoned oath of soldier, who does not conceive of life without honor, neither the heart without altruism, nor the word without the fact that confirms it and illuminates it to engrave it in bronze or in poem, how he records it and consecrates the national inspiration.

As a culminating act of the ceremony, President Pardo awarded the survivors of the Battle of Arica with the medals granted by the Congress of the Republic, as symbols of recognition and gratitude of the nation.