By 1831 the Duke of San Fernando talked to sculptor Antonio Solá [es] about the prospect of creating a statue to pay homage to Cervantes.

[1] The Duke asked for permission to Ferdinand VII, yet the monarch seized the project for himself and charged Manuel Fernández Varela [es] with the task of funding the monument instead.

[1] It features the standing figure of the writer with a slightly bent right leg, holding a roll of papers with his right hand and leaning the left one on the knob of his sword; he wears Spanish breeches, a buttoned-up jacket, ruff and a short cape.

[4] The lateral sides of the main body of the pedestal (made of limestone and granite) feature two bronze reliefs by José Piquer Duart [es] related to Cervantes' magnum opus Don Quixote de la Mancha, depicting the adventure of the lions on the left-hand side and Don Quixote and Sancho Panza driven by the goddess of madness on the right-hand one.

[4] From 1981 to 1986, during the mayoral mandate of Enrique Tierno Galván, four replicas of the bronze statue were gifted to New York, Moscow, Beijing and La Paz.