8. From Joaquín Costa Street to Felipe Sanclemente Street
We leave Los Sitios Square and go along Joaquín Costa Street. Opposite to Santa Engracia Church, we find the Monument to Joaquín Costa, a work for paying the debt of Zaragoza with this character. It is true that, soon after his dead, the works to build his mausoleum at Torrero cemetery started, but it was considered that he should be reminded forever with a definitive work of art. A school with his name, to put into practice his ideas, was opened in 1929. But, the works in honour of this Aragonese polygraph were completed with the monument planned to be built inside the school. One of the ideas presented in a special contest was approved but, as it happens with many other monuments of Zaragoza, it was not built. Finally, after fifty years, an effigy of Costa made by José Gonzalvo was constructed. In spite of the fact that this effigy follows the tradition of a bust on a prismatic pedestal, formally it does not follow the naturalist representation of the features of the person honoured. Therefore, even though the process to incorporate the new languages of plastic arts to the commemorative sculpture was slow, the change took place, and it was not considered necessary an exclusively realist representation for obtaining the final goal of the sculpture.
Next to this monument we find the stone at Inocencio Jiménez Street made by Félix Burriel. We have mentioned before this type of humble but quite usual homage. Nevertheless, we cannot find many examples in Zaragoza, since this kind of elements has been replaced by others works which do not use sculptural decoration. In this case, a portrait of Jiménez on profile was included.
We walk along Inocencio Jiménez Street till Felipe Sanclemente Street, and turn left to the junction with Independencia Promenade, where we find a bust of recent construction. This bust shows that the homages that try to recover Aragonese historic characters (some of them important but others forgotten) continue to be in fashion. We are talking about the Monument to Felipe Sanclemente, placed at the entrance to San Clemente Street. This bust -a realist portrait made in bronze on a simple pedestal- is similar to others erected in eponymous streets such as that of the Conde de Aranda, due also to the fact that they have been built following a traditional plan.