El perro Paco

As of 16 January 2023, the day prior to the celebration of St. Anthony, patron saint of animals, the star of many 19th-century news stories, Paco the Dog, has a sculpture paying tribute to him. The statue in remembrance of a street dog that was much-loved by the 19th-century Madrid society can be found in the heart of the Literary Quarter.

Made out of cast bronze, the sculpture was created by the sculptor, Rodrigo Romero, and can be found at Number 71, Calle Huertas. Madrid’s Nuevo Rastro and the Literary Quarter’s Traders’ Association are behind the initiative to build this statue.

Paco the Dog became famous for visiting Café de Fornos every afternoon, where illustrious writers of the period met, such as Azorín, Manuel Machado or Pío Baroja. There, he also coincided with Gonzalo de Saavedra y Cueto, Marquis of Bogaraya, who gave him his name and usually fed him. The dog was also a regular companion of several members of Madrid’s nobility.  He also used to go to the Hippodrome and the Bullring, where he was famous for going down to the ring and playing with the bulls and the bullfighters.  However, on 21 June 1882, the young bullfighter, Pepe el de los Galápagos, killed him with a single lunge because Paco made him fall off his horse during a fight.  His body was stuffed and displayed in a tavern in Madrid until he was finally buried in El Retiro Park.