Tower of Hercules

Picasso painted the tower of Hercules in oil on a board. He also drew it in one of the manual newspapers he made in A Coruña to communicate, in the form of an original letter, with his relatives in Malaga. In this case, he presented it on a plate and christened it “Caramel Tower”. This is what his father called it, in reference to the colour of the granite that has clad it since the 18th century.

I think I was predestined to live in Coruña. The first drawing that I did was of Hercules with a mace. It was there in Malaga and I was very small. I say predestined because you already know that the main monument of Coruña was the Tower of Hercules.

It is the oldest lighthouse in the world among all those still in operation. It is Roman, but legend has it that Hercules killed the giant Geryon, buried him and erected this tower over his grave. This land, Galicia, is a land of many legends. And of witches, and there are many, many of them.

For example, I love the story of Lady Hester Stanhope. On the 16th January 1809, there was a battle on the outskirts of the city, during which Sir John Moore was killed by a canon shot. According to legend, the ghost of Lady Hester Stanhope, his lover, appears at his grave every year on the 16th of January, which is in the garden of San Carlos. One day I will go to Great Britain to find out more about the life of this woman.

Speaking of Great Britain. Another legend says that Ith, who was the son of Breogán, saw from the top of the tower a distant land and set out to conquer it. That land was Ireland.

My father calls the lighthouse “caramel tower”, because of the colour of the granite that has clad it since the 18th century. So, as if it were a "caramel tower", with its plate and everything, I have drawn it. And I have also painted it on a small board. That way, when I leave, I will have a memory of it forever.

Authors of the text:
Elena Pardo and Rubén Ventureira