Christ The Redeemer Statue, Rio

The notion for a statue sitting on top of Mount Corcovado was first mentioned in the mid 1850s, when a Catholic priest asked for backing from Princess Isabel to construct a massive religious symbol. The Princess nixed the idea in 1889, when Brazil officially became a Republic, with laws ordering the separation of church and state. The next push for a large monument-type statue was made in 1921 by the Catholic Circle of Rio. The group spearheaded a function called 'Monument Week' to collect donations and acquire signatures to support the construction of the statue. The monetary gifts came mostly from Brazilian Catholics. Some of the ideas considered for the monument included a likeness of the Christian cross, a statue of Jesus holding a globe in his hands, and a pedestal symbolizing the world. The statue of Christ the Redeemer with spread arms was chosen.

Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa was the statue's designer, and it was sculpted by Frenchman Paul Landowski. Several technicians and engineers mulled over Landowski's ideas and it was decided to build the monument out of reinforced concrete, which is more suitable than steel for the cross-shaped structure. The outer core is made of soapstone, picked for its durability and ease of use. Construction took nine years, from 1922 to 1931. The statue was opened on October 12, 1931, at the cost of $250,000. The monument was meant to be lit by an array of floodlights triggered remotely in Rome, but bad weather blocked the signal and it had to be lit by local workers in Rio.

The monument was struck by lightning during a violent thunderstorm on Sunday, February 10, 2008. The storm damaged parts of Rio, but the statue was left undamaged because soapstone, the material forming the outer layers of the statue, is an insulator. In October 2006, on the statue's 75th anniversary, Archbishop of Rio Cardinal Eusebio Oscar Scheid consecrated a chapel under the statue. This allows Catholics to celebrate weddings and baptisms on the site.