Presentation of the Donation of Rosa Serra's Sculpture Athena to Girona City Council

Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Doctors Josep Antoni González-Huix and Francesc Xavier Serrat have donated to the city the work of art that stood in their medical practice for more than thirty years. The bronze sculpture has been installed in the courtyard of the Girona History Museum to ensure it is as accessible as possible to the public.

Today, Girona City Council presented the addition of a new artwork to the city's public heritage collection. The piece is the bronze sculpture Athena, by the renowned artist Rosa Serra (Vic, 1944). The sculpture has been donated to the city by Doctors Josep Antoni González-Huix Lladó and Francesc Xavier Serrat Fernández, who decided to present the work to the City Council following their retirement and the closure of their medical practice. The presentation took place at the Girona History Museum, where the sculpture has now been installed, and was attended by Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Culture Quim Ayats i Bartrina; the Director of the Girona History Museum, Sílvia Planas i Marcé; the artist Rosa Serra i Puigverd; and the donors, Xavier Serrat Fernández and Josep Antoni González-Huix Lladó.

The two gynaecologists devoted more than forty years of their professional careers to the health and well-being of women in Girona. They formally proposed the donation last summer following the closure of their medical practice on Carrer de Juli Garreta due to retirement. The sculpture had stood in their practice since 1992 and, as the doctors explain, represents "a symbol of dedication and of a life shared with thousands of women." Through this gesture, they wished to express their affection for Girona and leave a lasting legacy to the city and future generations.

The sculpture Athena has been installed on the terrace of the Girona History Museum to ensure it is as accessible as possible to visitors. Its location was agreed by Girona City Council's Public Sculpture Committee, which includes representatives from the departments of Culture, Urban Planning, Mobility, Public Space and Heritage. The committee also approved the possibility of relocating the sculpture in the future to another equally accessible public space.


Born in Vic in 1944, Rosa Serra moved to Olot at the age of eighteen, where she continues to live and work. In 1970 she began her artistic training at the Lluís Carbonell Academy, studying drawing and painting. She later expanded her education over three years at the Olot School of Fine Arts, where she studied ceramics, printmaking and perspective. It was in the studio of sculptor Lluís Curós that she discovered sculpture as the artistic language that best expressed her creativity.

Rosa Serra belongs to the generation that renewed Olot's sculptural tradition through the three-dimensional approach introduced by master sculptor Lluís Curós. Her work combines volumes and voids with remarkable strength and sensitivity, creating highly stylised forms that approach abstraction. While always maintaining her own distinctive style and personality, Serra drew inspiration from artists such as Josep Clarà, Aristide Maillol and Michelangelo. Influenced by Henry Moore, her sculptures are characterised by their bold, rounded curves and harmonious volumes in nude figures, features that have become the hallmark of both her public and private works.