They investigate if the Torico de Teruel, emblem of the city, is a fake

• Accident The emblematic Fuente del Torico de Teruel collapses

The residents of

do not win for scares.

First, they experienced moments of sadness when they verified last Sunday that the

, a symbol of the city, had

and in the fall the column had broken in two and the bull had broken all four legs and a horn.

Opposition groups in the City Council have asked for explanations about the authorization, without the corresponding reports and permission to Heritage, to place 23 ropes in the column on the occasion of the National Congress of the Rope Bull, which caused the fall.

Now the people of Teruel can not get out of their astonishment at the news known this Thursday that the Torico sculpture

.

It has been confirmed that

, as previously thought and the municipal archives indicate, but of an iron alloy that did not exist a century and a half ago.

This is supported by a

prepared by the Santa María de Albarracín Foundation, a specialist in restorations and in charge of supervising the repair of the column of the fountain that broke in two.

The mayor of Teruel, Emma Buj, has acknowledged to various media that it is "the time that more explicitly" the possibility is raised that the sculpture that presided over the Plaza del Torico until a week ago

.

The mayor added: "I can only say that the report indicates that the analyzed iron alloy did not exist in the 19th century".

The aforementioned study, signed by an expert in metallurgy from the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute, indicates that

, a material that is typical of a more industrial period than that of the date of inauguration of the Torico fountain, in 1858.

He adds that there are "stylistic differences" between the original bronze bull's heads from which the water flows in the fountain and the sculpture of the bull that tops the central column.

For this reason, it can be inferred that the fallen figure is not the original from 1858 but

.

The document points out the possibility that the substitution was related to the repair of the Fuente del Torico after the damage suffered during the bombing of the city during the

.

He then withdrew and remained guarded.

The report from the Fundación Santa María delves into the suspicions that the original Torico was made of bronze while the current one is made of cast iron.

"The anomaly that it is not bronze is there, but

",

Antonio Jiménez, manager of said Foundation , told

The entity advises the Teruel City Council on how to carry out the restoration of the Torico fountain and monument.

To do this, a group of experts has been formed, which on Wednesday delivered a first report to the Consistory with a series of recommendations.

Among them, there is the musealization of the current Torico and

in its place;

stop climbing the column to place the handkerchief at the Fiesta de la Vaquilla festivities, on July 1, and carry out a general study on its history and its state of conservation.

The documentation from the municipal archive always refers to this statue, weighing 54 kilos and 45 centimeters in length, as a piece of bronze.

The confirmation that the material with which the sculpture was molded is iron came in 2003, when it was certified by the Provincial Museum of Teruel after proceeding to a restoration of the piece.

This has now been confirmed again, as the reason for the accident, its director Jaime Vicente.

Likewise, the official chronicler of the city of Teruel, Vidal Muñoz, who attributes the authorship of the statue to the sculptor

, author of the sculptures of the lions of the Congress, has indicated that "in the documentation of the City Council there has always been talk of cast bronze.

The company Metalisteria Metalcín, which has been entrusted with the restoration of the damaged piece, has indicated that "the Torico that we have is made of cast iron, what is not known exactly is from what year, only that it is of very good quality. ".

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