Salou. Costa Dorada. 07 December 2025.
This year 2025 it is 60 years since the monument to Jaume I was inaugurated, a sculptural ensemble 12 meters long and 20 meters high, located on the promenade of the same name and symbol of Salou. To commemorate this date and the importance of this work for the capital of the Costa Dorada, the City of Salou has prepared several events.
The first will be a conference by the historian Esther Lozano, on Tuesday, December 9, at 6.30 p.m. in the Torre Vella. With the title “60 years of the Monument Jaume I in Salou”, the talk will give a vision of the origins of the sculptural group, its meaning, and the link with the conquest of Mallorca that in 1229 Jaume I starred after departing from the natural port of Salou with its ships.
The institutional act will be on Saturday, December 13 at 12 noon, in the same monument, and will have the participation of the Giants, the Mulassa and the Grallers of Salou. The objective is that this act is to share the popular celebration of an iconic figure of the municipality and strengthen the feeling of belonging.
Due to the symbolic importance of the monument, the City Council of Salou has made a replica that delivers as an institutional gift.
The monument to Jaume I
The monument to Jaume I was inaugurated on November 28, 1965. Its construction is framed in a moment of urban planning of Salou, at the height of the tourist development of the municipality (called then Vila-seca and Salou) with the creation of a large promenade of 1.2 km long that bears the same name of the king.
The sculpture is the work of the architect Salvador Ripoll i Balaguer (1927-2003), from Reus, and the sculptor Lluís Maria Saumells i Panadés (1915-1996), from Tarragona. Ripoll was in charge of designing the global structure and the location and integration on the promenade, while Saumells created the figure of the king and the emblematic horse.
The monument consists of the following elements:
- The figure of King Jaume I, about 3 meters high and sculpted with Senia stone, is located on another stone element that evokes a boat. It is a sober figure, which only carries the armour mesh, a shield and a sword.
- a horsehead representing the bow of the ship, cast in bronze and covered with gold leaf
- a monolith in the shape of a triangle, covered in white stone, about 20 meters high, representing the sail of the boat
- a water space of 125 square meters, deep seal, which surrounds the whole complex
- the granite podium or pedestal where part of the sculptural group is based and where there are 12 shields, 6 on the side, and a commemorative inscription where the departure of Salou to the conquest of Mallorca extracted from the "Llibre dels Feyts" or Chronicle of Jaume I (which is believed to have been completed in 1276, on the death of the king).
