Christ the Redeemer — sculpture
Image by FlaviaPadula from Pixabay

Christ the Redeemer

Cristo Redentor

  • Elevation710 m
  • 1 min read
  • 22.952° S 43.210° W

Interesting facts

  • The statue is 30 metres tall on an 8-metre pedestal, its outstretched arms span 28 metres, and it weighs about 635 tonnes.
  • The idea of a Christian monument on Corcovado was first put forward in the mid-1850s by a Vincentian priest, Pedro Maria Boss, to honour Princess Isabel.
  • For the 1931 inauguration, Guglielmo Marconi was meant to switch on the floodlights by radio from Rome, some 9,200 km away.
  • Building it cost the equivalent of about US$250,000 at the time.
  • A small chapel in the base of the statue was consecrated in October 2006, on the 75th anniversary of its completion.
  • A 2010 restoration used more than 60,000 pieces of soapstone taken from the same quarry as the original.
  • A lightning strike in February 2008 damaged the statue's fingers, head and eyebrows.
  • In 2007 the statue was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Why it is worth it

The statue is as much a French project as a Brazilian one. Engineer Heitor da Silva Costa won the 1922 competition to design it, then spent years in Europe developing the plans, where he brought on French sculptor Paul Landowski — who ended up designing the head and hands — while the face itself was modeled by a Romanian-born sculptor, Gheorghe Leonida. Three nationalities, working across two continents, to build Rio's most recognizable landmark.

Underneath, it's reinforced concrete; the outer skin is soapstone, chosen specifically because it's easy to shape into smooth curves and holds up far better than bare concrete against the salt air and humidity at the summit of Corcovado. Silva Costa won the design competition in 1922, and the statue was dedicated on 12 October 1931.

Perched on an exposed 700-metre summit, the statue functions as a literal lightning rod, absorbing an average of three to five strikes a year according to Brazil's national space research institute. A January 2014 storm chipped the head, thumb and middle finger badly enough to require four months of repair, using soapstone the church had deliberately kept in reserve from the original quarry — and the repair crew used the opportunity to extend the lightning-rod network further out along the arms.

Getting there

Located in Botafogo. Santos Dumont Airport (SDU) is about 7 km away.

Plan your visit

We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.

Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Rio de Janeiro 12The Most Beautiful Places in Brazil 44The Most Remarkable Modern Monuments 5The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in Brazil 9The Most Beautiful Modern Sacred Places 10The Most Beautiful Modern Squares, Streets and Monuments 15The Most Beautiful Pilgrimage Sites 23The Most Mystical Sacred Places 49The Most Beautiful Sculptures 50The Most Remarkable Monuments 56The Most Mystical Places 138The Most Beautiful Squares, Streets and Monuments 173The Most Beautiful Sacred Places 623

From the encyclopaedia

Christ the Redeemer is an Art Deco statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, created by French-Polish sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with French engineer Albert Caquot and Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida who sculpted the face. Constructed between 1922 and 1931, the statue is 30 metres (98 ft) high, excluding its 8-metre (26 ft) pedestal, and faces east. The arms stretch 28 metres (92 ft) wide. It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone. Christ the Redeemer differs considerably from its original design, as the initial plan was a large Christ with a globe in one hand and a cross in the other. Although the project organizers originally accepted the design, it later changed to the statue of today, with the arms spread out wide.

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