Angel of the North

Angel of the North is a contemporary sculpture designed by Antony Gormley. It depicts an angel made of steel measuring 20 meters in height. The angel's wings are 54 meters long and lean forward 3.5 degrees. The whole weighs about 200 tons - half of this falls on the character itself, the remainder on the wings. The sculpture is located on Birtley Hill, it can be seen, among others from the A1 and A167 roads.

Angel of the North was completed in 1998, and work on its creation lasted nearly four years. Due to the size and location of the exhibition, special precautions had to be taken to prevent the wind from affecting the sculpture. The statue was placed on a foundation weighing 600 tons, sunk into the rock to a depth of over 20 meters.

While working on the sculpture, Gormley created several mockups and preliminary versions. In 2008, the life-size model on the basis of which the sculpture was created was auctioned for 2.28 million pounds.