The three sculptures
Steel anchored in rock, struck directly by the sea.
Alvaro Galve — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Joxemai — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Joxemai — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Joxemai — CC BY-SA 4.0
**Three iron sculptures fixed into the rock at the bay's end, struck directly by the sea — with vents in the ground that blast air and water audibly** — at San Sebastián's western tip. The Basque sculptor **Eduardo Chillida** installed them in **1977** with the architect **Luis Peña Ganchegui**. ⚠ **Each piece weighs some ten tonnes** of steel, **anchored into natural rock** — ✅ **and the anchoring itself was an engineering problem** that took years. ✅ **The work is not the sculptures alone**: **Ganchegui designed a stone terrace in front of them** ⚠ **with openings connected to caves beneath** — **so when the swell strikes, columns of air and water erupt through them with a roar**. ⚠ **The place works by the sea** — **and it is an entirely different thing on a calm day and a rough one**.
Steel anchored in rock, struck directly by the sea.
Columns of air and water erupting with each wave.
The sun setting into the Atlantic behind the sculptures.
Paseo Eduardo Chillida, 20008 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
**The most famous Basque sculptor of the 20th century — and his subject is space, material and place rather than figures.** ✅ **Who he was**: **Eduardo Chillida** (1924–2002) **was born in San Sebastián itself**, ⚠ **and was a goalkeeper for Real Sociedad** until injury ended that; **so he studied architecture and then left it for sculpture**. ✅ **His subject**: ⚠ **not representing things but treating «void» as a material** — **the gap between two masses, trapped air, the boundary between an object and its surroundings**. ✅ **His materials**: **forged iron** first (⚠ **a deep Basque tradition — the forge**), **then steel, concrete, alabaster and granite**. ✅ **His attachment to place**: ⚠ **much of his work is made for a particular site rather than a museum** — ✅ **and the *Comb of the Wind* is the complete example**: **it has no meaning away from these rocks and this sea**. ✅ **Other works**: ***Eulogy of the Horizon* in Gijón**, **sculptures in Berlin and Washington**, ⚠ **and an unrealised project to carve a mountain in Lanzarote**. ✅ **And *Chillida-Leku*** — a museum and sculpture park on a farm near San Sebastián, ✅ **worth a day for anyone the work speaks to**.
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