Christ the Redeemer is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil,it is considered as the largest Art Deco statue in the world.The statue is 39.6 meters(130 ft) tall including its 9.5 meter(31 feet) pedestel,and 30 meters(98 feet) wide. it weighs 635 tons and it is located at peak of the 700 maters(2,300 feet) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking city.It is one of the tallest of one of its kind in the world.
History
The idea for placing a large statue atop Corcovado was first suggested in the mid 1850s,when Catholic priest Pedro Maria Boss requested financing from Princess Isabel to build a large religious monument.The princess did not give it much weight and the idea was totally dropped in the year 1889.When Brazil became a republic with a laws mandating separation of church and state.The second proposal for a landmark statue on the mountain was made in 1921 by Catholic Circle of Rio.
The group organized an event called "Semana do Monumento" (Monument Week) to attract the donations and collect signatures to support the building of the statue.The donation came mostly from Brazilian Catholics.The designs considered for the "Statue of the Christ" included a representaion of the Christian Cross,a statue of Jesus with a globe in hands,and a pedestal symbolising the world.The statue of Christ the Reedemer with open arms was chosen.
Built by
Local engineer Heitor da Silva Costa designed the statue,it was sculpted by French sculptor Paul Landowski.Statue is mainly made of reinforced concrete and the outer layers are made of soapstone.Construction took nine years from 1922-1931.The monument was opened on October 12 1931.The cost of the monument was $2,50,000.The statue was meant to be lit by a battery of floodlights but poor weather affected theplans and it had to be lit by workers in Rio. The statue was struck by lightning during violent electrical storm on Sunday,February 10 2008 but the statue was left unscathed,which need a small renovation of the statue which began in March 2010 after heavy rains and previous lighting strikes wore away parts of the face of the statue.
