60 Fun Facts About Christ the Redeemer

Christ the Redeemer overlooks which city?

Christ the Redeemer stands atop Corcovado above Rio de Janeiro, visible from much of the city; it has become an icon of Rio and of Brazil.

What does Corcovado, the name of the statue's mountain, mean in Portuguese?

Corcovado means 'hunchback' in Portuguese, from the peak's humped granite profile as seen from the city below.

In which artistic style is Christ the Redeemer built?

Christ the Redeemer is Art Deco, its robe and features reduced to the smooth, stylised planes fashionable when the design was settled in the 1920s.

How tall is the statue, excluding its pedestal?

The statue itself is 30 metres tall, roughly a ten-storey building, and stands on a pedestal that lifts it higher still above Corcovado's summit.

How wide is the statue's outstretched armspan?

The arms span 28 metres, almost the statue's own height; the open-armed pose was chosen as a gesture of peace embracing the city.

What two materials is the statue made of?

A reinforced concrete core is clad in thousands of small triangular soapstone tiles, chosen for durability and easy carving; Rio society women glued the tiles onto cloth, sometimes writing messages on the back.

Which direction does the statue face?

The statue faces east, looking across the city toward Guanabara Bay and the rising sun.

How much does the statue weigh?

The statue weighs 635 tonnes, roughly 700 short tons, and was assembled on site from pieces hauled up the mountain by the rack railway.

Between which years was the statue constructed?

Construction took nine years.

On what date did the monument open?

The monument was inaugurated on 12 October 1931, with Cardinal Sebastião Leme presiding and bad weather spoiling the planned remote switch-on of the floodlights.

Which French-Polish sculptor created the statue?

Paul Landowski, born in Paris in 1875 to a Polish doctor who had fled the January Uprising, modelled the statue in clay in France; the pieces were shipped to Brazil and recreated at full size.

Which Brazilian engineer designed and built the monument after winning the design competition?

Heitor da Silva Costa, a Rio engineer, won the competition and then oversaw the nine-year build, travelling to Paris to work up the final figure with the sculptor.

A sculptor from which country carved the statue's face?

The face was carved by a Romanian sculptor trained at the Bucharest conservatory and in Italy, who was working in the French sculptor's Paris studio when the commission came.

Which French engineer designed the statue's internal structure?

Albert Caquot, one of France's leading civil engineers, designed the internal frame; he also engineered the 1928 Pont de la Caille in Haute-Savoie.

Which Vincentian priest first proposed a Christian monument on Corcovado in the 1850s?

Pedro Maria Boss, a Vincentian (Lazarist) priest, proposed a monument on Corcovado in the 1850s to honour a princess of the imperial family, but it was never approved.

Why was the 1850s statue proposal finally dropped after 1889?

The idea was revived by the Catholic Circle of Rio in 1920.

What was the name of the 1920 event organised to collect donations and signatures for the statue?

Semana do Monumento, or Monument Week, gathered signatures and donations across the city; Brazilian Catholics gave most of the money for the monument.

What did the original design show Christ holding?

The first design showed Christ holding a globe in one hand and a cross in the other, but the open-armed figure, read as a symbol of peace, was chosen instead.

From which country was the concrete for the base supplied?

The concrete for the base was shipped from Limhamn, the cement-making district of Malmö in southern Sweden.

Which inventor was meant to switch on the statue's floodlights by radio from Rome at the 1931 opening?

Guglielmo Marconi was to trigger the floodlights by a radio signal sent from Italy, but bad weather interfered and the lights were switched on at the site.

Roughly how far from Rio was the inventor who was to light the statue by radio?

Marconi was in Rome, roughly 9,200 kilometres from Rio, when the radio signal was to be sent to light the statue.

What was consecrated beneath the statue on its 75th anniversary in 2006?

A small chapel at the base of the statue was consecrated in October 2006 by the Archbishop of Rio, allowing baptisms and weddings to be held there.

What natural hazard damaged the statue's fingers, head and eyebrows in February 2008?

Lightning struck during a violent electrical storm in February 2008, scorching the head and eyebrows and damaging fingers; the lightning rods were later upgraded.

What did vandals do to the statue during its 2010 renovation?

The mayor called it a crime against the nation; the culprits later apologised.

How many replacement stones were used in the 2010 restoration?

The four-month 2010 restoration replaced some 60,000 stone tiles, cut from the same quarry as the originals, with about a hundred people working on it.

Why are replacement stones on the statue getting darker over time?

The original pale stone is running out, no longer quarried in quantity, so the tiles fitted during repairs after weather damage are progressively darker.

In what colours was the restored statue lit in 2010, and why?

Brazil were playing in the 2010 FIFA World Cup at the time.

Which footballer replaced the statue in a controversial 1998 Pirelli tyre commercial?

Ronaldo, then at Inter Milan, posed with arms outstretched in place of the statue for Pirelli's 'Power is nothing without control' campaign; the Catholic Church objected.

Where were the New 7 Wonders of the World winners announced on 7 July 2007?

The winners were announced at Lisbon's Estádio da Luz on 7 July 2007, in a ceremony run by Bernard Weber's Swiss-based New7Wonders Foundation.

The statue stands within which national park?

Tijuca National Park surrounds the peak; its forest is largely a 19th-century replanting begun in 1861 after coffee plantations had stripped the hills.

Which emperor opened the Corcovado Rack Railway in October 1884?

Emperor Pedro II inaugurated the Corcovado Rack Railway on 9 October 1884, riding the steam-hauled line built by engineers Pereira Passos and Teixeira Soares.

How long is the Corcovado Rack Railway?

The trip takes about 20 minutes and departs every 20 minutes.

How many steps lead from the railway terminus to the observation deck at the statue's foot?

From the upper station, 223 steps climb to the statue's feet; escalators, walkways and lifts were added in 2003 to spare visitors the climb.

Which rack system does the Corcovado railway use?

The Corcovado line uses the Riggenbach ladder-type rack, on metre-gauge track with gradients of up to 30 per cent.

Which Winterthur company built the trains that served the Corcovado line from 1980 to 2019?

SLM, the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of Winterthur, built the electric rack trains delivered in 1979-80; Stadler, which absorbed SLM's rack-railway business, supplied the replacements.

Which of these famous passengers is recorded as having ridden the Corcovado railway?

Albert Einstein rode up Corcovado during his 1925 visit to Rio; other recorded passengers include Popes Pius XII and John Paul II, Santos-Dumont and Princess Diana.

Which Brazilian artist is credited with the statue's design alongside its engineer?

Carlos Oswald, a Rio painter and printmaker, drew up the figure with the engineer; the French sculptor then executed it.

Which sibling of the sculptor who carved the face was a pioneering female engineer?

Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu, sister of the face's sculptor, graduated from the Royal Technical Academy in Berlin in 1912, among the world's first women engineers; their brother Dimitrie was also an engineer.

The statue's French structural engineer is also remembered for designing what in the First World War?

The US built nearly a thousand Caquot R balloons in 1918-19.

The statue's French-Polish sculptor won which prestigious prize in 1900 with a statue of David?

The sculptor won the Prix de Rome in 1900 with 'David combattant Goliath', earning the traditional years of study at the Villa Medici in Rome.

The Cristo de la Concordia, slightly taller than Rio's statue, stands in which Bolivian city?

Cochabamba's Cristo de la Concordia, on San Pedro Hill, stands 34.2 metres tall, a little over Rio's figure; it was completed in 1994.

The Christ the King statue in Świebodzin, Poland, was given its height of thirty-three units for what symbolic reason?

With its mound and crown it reaches 52.5 metres.

The Sanctuary of Christ the King in Almada, Portugal, was inspired by Rio's statue after whose visit in 1934?

Cardinal Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira, the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, saw the Rio statue in 1934; the Almada sanctuary, built 1949-59 across the Tagus from the capital, followed his proposal.

The Christ of the Ozarks near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, was erected in 1966 by whom?

Gerald L. K. Smith, a far-right preacher and political organiser, had the 20-metre Christ of the Ozarks built on Magnetic Mountain in 1966 as part of his religious attractions there.

Christ of the Abyss, a submerged bronze statue of Jesus, has its original cast off which coast?

The original Christ of the Abyss was lowered in 1954 into the bay of San Fruttuoso on the Italian Riviera, near where Dario Gonzatti, an Italian scuba pioneer, died in 1947.

Which Vietnamese city has a 32-metre Christ statue among the many inspired by Rio's?

The Christ of Vũng Tàu, 32 metres tall on Nho Mountain above the beach resort, was completed in 1993; Dili's 27-metre Cristo Rei in Timor-Leste is another.

In which year did Portuguese explorers first enter Guanabara Bay, on New Year's Day?

A Portuguese expedition entered the bay on 1 January 1502 and, taking it for a river mouth, named it 'January River', the name the city later took.

The 1850s monument was intended to honour which daughter of the emperor?

Princess Isabel, the emperor's heir, served three times as regent and signed the 1888 Golden Law abolishing slavery; the 1850s proposal aimed to honour her.

Which mayor called the 2010 paint attack a crime against the nation?

Eduardo Paes, mayor of Rio from 2009, condemned the April 2010 graffiti as a crime against the nation; the city was then preparing to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

What year saw the Corcovado railway electrified, a first for Brazil?

Electrification came in 1910, making the Corcovado line Brazil's first electric railway after 26 years of steam haulage.

Which Paris bridge carries the statue of Sainte Geneviève by the Christ the Redeemer sculptor?

The sculptor of Christ the Redeemer also carved the 1928 statue of Sainte Geneviève, patron of Paris, which stands on a tall pylon at the Pont de la Tournelle.

What was the statue's construction cost, in the money of the day?

The statue cost about $250,000 in 1931 money, raised largely from Brazilian Catholic donations, the equivalent of several million dollars a century later.

From which Rio neighbourhood does the Corcovado Rack Railway set out?

The Corcovado Rack Railway starts from its station in Cosme Velho, at the foot of the mountain, and climbs through the forest to the summit in about 20 minutes.

How high is Corcovado, the mountain on which the statue stands?

Corcovado rises about 700 metres (710 m) above sea level, a granite dome in the forested hills west of the city centre.

The statue's foundation stone was laid to mark which national anniversary?

The foundation stone was laid in the centenary year of Brazil's independence from Portugal, which had been proclaimed on 7 September 1822.

What did the vandals who spray-painted the statue's arm in 2010 eventually do?

The graffiti artists who daubed the right arm and head in April 2010 apologised and turned themselves in to the police; the damage was cleaned during the restoration.

What did a storm on 17 January 2014 knock off the statue?

On 17 January 2014 a bolt during a violent storm broke a finger off the right hand; the protective rods on the statue were afterwards improved.

The chapel consecrated beneath the statue in 2006 is named after which patron saint of Brazil?

The chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of the Apparition, Nossa Senhora Aparecida, Brazil's patron since 1930; Cardinal Eusébio Scheid consecrated it on the statue's 75th anniversary.

Which Brazilian town's 43-metre Christ the Protector statue overtops Rio's landmark?

Encantado, a small town in Rio Grande do Sul, finished its 43-metre Christ the Protector in 2022, with a viewing window set into the statue's chest.

What perceived trend in society motivated the Catholic Circle of Rio's 1920 push for the statue?

The Catholic Circle of Rio feared a rising 'godlessness' in Brazilian society and wanted a towering public symbol of faith over the city, raising the money from the faithful.