King Charles III
Puerta del Sol
Madrid Spain
2008

Charles lll of Bourbon
(1716 –1788) was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese. In 1731, the fifteen-year-old Charles became the Duke of Parma and Piacenza.

In 1734, as the Duke of Parma, he conquered the kingdoms of Naples and of Sicily, and was crowned as the King of Naples and Sicily in 1735. In 1738 he married the Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, an educated, cultured woman who gave birth to thirteen children, eight of whom reached adulthood. Charles and Maria Amalia resided in Naples for nineteen years.

Upon succeeding to the Spanish throne in 1759, Charles, a proponent of enlightened absolutism, abdicated the Neapolitan and Sicilian thrones in favour of Ferdinand, his third surviving son, who became Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

As king of Spain Charles III tried to rescue his empire from decay through far-reaching reforms such as weakening the Church and its monasteries, promoting science and university research, facilitating trade and commerce, modernizing agriculture and avoiding wars. He never achieved satisfactory control over finances, and he had to borrow more and more. His reforms proved short-lived and Spain relapsed after his death.

https://equestrianstatue.org/charles-lll/

His equestrian statue erected in Madrid in 1994 is a replica of a smaller one by Juan Pascal de Mena. The statue already had to be restored in 2000, because of the many pigeons using the statue to roost and to leave their droppings. Use was made of this opportunity to place inside the statue a sensor that emits a sound that keeps the pigeons away. Another statue (by Canova) of Charles III of Bourbon, as King of Naples, the town he captured in 1734, stands in that city.


Bourbon King Carlos III, the statue of King Carlos III was placed here by popular demand; as a token of Madrid’s appreciation for the improvements he commissioned for the city.


The Puerta del Sol is a public square in Madrid, one of the best known and busiest places in the city. This is the centre of the radial network of Spanish roads. The square also contains the famous clock whose bells mark the traditional eating of the Twelve Grapes and the beginning of a new year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerta_del_Sol

This mounted statue of Charles III, nicknamed "el rey alcalde" ("the mayor-king"), is located in the center of Madrid (Spain) in a square called "Puerta del Sol". Charles III of Spain (January 20, 1716 – December 14, 1788) was king of Spain 1759–1788 The first son of the second marriage of Philip V with Elizabeth Farnese of Parma. As king of Spain, his foreign policy was disastrous, but his internal government was, on the whole, beneficial to the country. Charles III married Maria Amalia of Saxony (1724-1760), daughter of Augustus III of Poland in 1738. They had 13 children; however, only seven reached adulthood