Its official name is the monument to the Spanish Homeland, embodied in King Alfonso XII, and materialised thanks to a proposal by his widow, Queen María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena. In 1902 a public bid was called to choose the project to be implemented and which selected the plans of the architect José Grases Riera. His proposal, a spectacular sculptural and architectural ensemble, measures fifty-eight metres wide by eighty-six metres long and thirty metres high, measurements that correspond to the column supporting the equestrian statue of Alfonso XII. The group of twenty sculptors who took part in its creation was chaired by Mariano Benlliure, Joseph Clarà and Mateo Inurria. It was inaugurated on July 22, 1922.