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All Spain Madrid Bicha of Balazote

Bicha of Balazote

This enigmatic Iberian sculpture of uncertain origin may have once guarded a burial site.

Madrid, Spain

Added By
Luis Morato
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Bicha of Balazote   Proyectos DIASPORA y REMAN3D / CC BY 2.0
Bicha of Balazote   Proyectos DIASPORA y REMAN3D / CC BY 2.0
Bicha de Balazote   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
Head   Luis García
Detail of the head   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
The bicha from another angle   Luis Morato / Atlas Obscura User
  Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
The Bicha appears on the coat of arms of Balazote   Sancho Panza XXI
Bicha of Balazote   Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
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About

This strange limestone sculpture has a prominent place in the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Madrid. It has been dated between the fifth and the sixth centuries B.C. and depicts a hybrid creature with the body of a bull and the head of a human with animal features.

The piece was discovered in June 1879 when a resident of Balazote near Albacete, Isidro López, gave the city's Archaeological Commission a strange figure that was already called bicha (a popular word for a grotesque and ugly being) because of its singularly strange appearance. The body was shaped like a bull (though it was previously thought to be a deer) and the head was that of a bearded man, turned towards the viewer and slightly raised. On the head were a set of small horns and bull ears. 

It presented a challenge, since the style was not in harmony with the types of sculpture that prevailed in the Iberian Peninsula. Its meaning and the purpose for which it was sculpted are also not very clear. It is believed to be the personification of a river. In classical Greece, the deity Achelous, who embodied the Peloponnese river of the same name, was depicted as a bull. It has been thought that the Bicha's mustaches are reminiscent of waves or winding river paths. Its smooth back also indicates that it was adjacent to a funerary monument, where it perhaps was meant to ward off evil.

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Museums Archaeology History & Culture Statues

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Museo Arqueológico Nacional

By tube: L4. Colón and Velázquez stations

By bus: Lines 15,28,53,71 and 203

By Commuter Train: Recoletos station

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Added By

Luis Morato

Edited By

Xavixavir, Michelle Cassidy

  • Xavixavir
  • Michelle Cassidy

Published

July 17, 2024

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Sources
  • https://www.arthistoryproject.com/timeline/the-ancient-world/the-iberians/bicha-of-balazote/
  • https://www.larazon.es/opinion/hay-quien-vote-bicha-balazote_20230515646161d56cbd630001a22e2c.html
  • https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicha_de_Balazote
Bicha of Balazote
13 C. de Serrano
Madrid, 28001
Spain
40.423322, -3.688669
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