This innocuous statue has a great story attached to it. After Franco came to power, many statues of the Spanish monarchy were destroyed. Vandals went after the figure of Philip III and pulled him from his pedestal.
But when the statue hit the cobblestones of the Plaza Mayor, hundreds of tiny bones came tumbling out its hollow interior. Fearing the wrath of Philip’s spirit, the vandals stopped immediately.
It turns out the bones were those of small birds—they had found a hole in the original statue and tried to make their nests inside Philip’s body. The angle of the hole was such that they couldn’t find their way back out.
Equestrian lovers can compare this statue of Philip III to the one of Alfonso XII in the Parque del Buen Retiro and Philip IV outside of the Palacio Real.