The architect Paco Pol, who was carrying out the remodeling of Santa Catalina Hill in Gijón, became interested in Chillida's project and Chillida, in view of the fact that the space suited his preconception of the work, started the project. The sculpture Elogio del horizonte was finally erected on the Cerro de Santa Catalina in 1990. The material chosen for this sculpture was concrete, an atypical material for Art. The use of concrete by Chillida began in 1972 with the sculpture La sirena varada, in which he worked with the engineer José Antonio Fernández Ordóñez for the first time. For the execution of the Elogio del horizonte, Chillida went back to Fernández Ordóñez. Chillida did not want a sophisticated concrete, but wanted a concrete concrete, stone and earth, with a rudimentary appearance and an earthy color. He did not want the Elogio to be erected like an impeccable monolith, disconnected from the earth. The concrete that they used is the aluminous concrete, formed by different proportions of red gravel, red sand, foundry shavings, water and aluminous cement. Aluminous cement is manufactured from limestone and bauxite, and is composed mainly of aluminates, with which the setting takes place in a matter of hours instead of days. In the 70s its use in construction was popularized, but it turned out that over time this material deteriorates because the crystalline structure of the aluminates changes from hexagonal to cubic, generating pores and accelerating the disintegration of the concrete, which was given to know as aluminosisThe highlight of the dosage chosen by the engineer is the high concentration of foundry chips. Its inclusion in the concrete produces an oxidized finish that endows the sculpture with the strength that Chillida intended. The definitive sculpture, if it is assimilated to a raised portico and an ellipse in plan, the portico is 10 m high, and the ellipse It has diameters of 12 m and 15 m. The constant thickness in the whole piece is 1.4 m.The three cantilevers are born at an 8 m height and measure 2 m. The choice of the materials from which a work of art is made is not a capricious choice, but is based on aesthetic, formal and, above all, interpretative criteria. Concrete is a coarse and solid material, designed to perform practical functions, unlike the strictly artistic. Concrete is a robust material, containment, support, that receives strength and that belongs to the field of construction, of the useful. The dimensions of Praise also support this reading of the work. It is a monumental sculpture, 10 m high. It is at the limit of the scale that man assumes as his scale. It is immense but not immeasurable. Under his arms one feels the weight of the concrete, feels protected by its walls of the enviste of the wind. It has a window open to the world and the open doors invite you to take refuge inside. Praise is a refuge. It has the dimensions of a shelter and has been built with the material of man. Upwards the sculpture is an ellipse whose roof is the sky. And towards the earth, the sculpture is an open door, open arms that invite you to enter and take refuge, which indicate where to look, where to place you, what is the place of that space. The contemplative experience from the shelter is also intensified by the reverberation produced by the wind in the concrete. The bravery of the sea and the wind intermingle and enhance as if we were inside a colossal shell. Elogio is a refuge that forces the contemplation of the unfathomable. It is like a temple that marks the next boundary between earth and heaven.