The eternal struggle: Good and Evil

The stories are many, and as varied as the subject. Many religious books speak of a great struggle between good and evil, a struggle that resulted in the expulsion of myriad angels from heaven, thenceforth referred to as “fallen angels,” angels who have lost their connection with God’s grace when they were expelled from the kingdom of heaven to become pariahs.

The battle was terrible, for the first time the harmony of the heavens was marred. Its floors were stained with blood from both sides, ending in the defeat of rebels, which provoked their expulsion from Heaven.

Homeless, they decided to descend to Earth and make it their new home. They moved to conquer, and to rule. These spirits would later be called demons, in order to distinguish them from the inhabitants of Heaven. The fallen angels filled the land with chaos and evil, and taught humans to become corrupt and ambitious, to kill. Fallen angels filled the air with sin and vice, and plagues began to appear.

Myths and struggles fill the mind of man, and while watching the movie “The Day of the Beast” I saw the fountain of the fallen angel in Madrid’s Retiro Park. I decided I simply must visit.

Finally I did and I must admit it was quite a unique sight, although many people barely know it, or don’t appreciate it, or are unaware it’s the only statue of the devil in the world.

Its history is full of objectors and detractors, there are those who find its location in the Madrid park offensive, but they are missing out on the visual delight it offers.

Ramon Ricardo Bellver, its creator, was inspired by a passage in Milton’s “Paradise Lost” which he mentions “It was for his pride he was cast out, with all his host of rebel angels, never to return.” This figure represents the fall from paradise, to which we shall never be able to return.

The sculpture’s pose transmits to us the sense of perpetual decline and dismay at being cast out of eternal paradise, a sensory art form which allows us to imagine the dismay …

Why not rent some of our apartments in Madrid and decide after your visit you which side you are

Tags: demon, lost paradise, Ricardo Bellver Ramón, statue of the devil, Struggle between good and evil