Monument to Federico Rubio

Federico Rubio y Galí was a prominent physician who not only went down in history for his medical discoveries but also his intense involvement in politics and literature. He founded the first Professional School of Nursing in Spain in 1896 and was elected a member of the prestigious Royal College of Surgery in London and the Royal Spanish Academy of Medicine.

His monument, located in Parque del Oeste, is made of white limestone and bronze. It is the work of the Catalan sculptor Miguel Blay Fábregas. The inauguration was carried out by King Alfonso XIII, four years after the death of the doctor in December 1906.

During the Spanish Civil War, the monument was the target of intense crossfire. The fight between Parque del Oeste and the entire campus of Ciudad Universitaria was long and cruel. The monument to Federico Rubio y Galí ended up decapitated by a cannon projectile and pierced by hundreds of bullets.

After the war, the monument was somehow “pardoned,” despite the doctor’s Republican background, and later rebuilt and left as it is seen today, keeping the bullet holes and the shrapnel scars it had received.