BIG FIGURE OF CHRIST GUIDES SAILORS (Jul, 1931)
BIG FIGURE OF CHRIST GUIDES SAILORS
A gigantic figure of Christ, comparable in size to America’s Statue of Liberty, is receiving its finishing touches in Brazil. Covered with blue-green tile, it rises 150 feet above the summit of Corcovado Mountain on the sea-coast of Brazil.
Work was started on the statue in 1927. The hands, twice as tall as a man, were completed first (P. S. M., Sept.,’27,p. 13). Beneath the colored tile surface of the statue is a supporting core of reinforced concrete. The statue was designed by Paul Landowski, Parisian sculptor.
I can see this from my window. It was never meant as a guidance for sailors, though. Measuring only 30 meters high, it can be seen as a small cross on the top of the mountain, when there are no clouds around…
Perhaps the intended guidance was spiritual, and not navigational.
But other than this article, I can’t find any mention that it was ever intended especially for sailors, in any manner.
I visited it last november and it really seems to be much bigger that it really is, so like galessa says, it appears as a small cross from the sea level…
And in the information at the feet of the statue there is no reference to a function as sailors’ guide