Landmark South America
Christ the Redeemer
Christ the Redeemer is a giant statue on a mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its arms are stretched out wide. It is covered in tiny pieces of stone.
Christ the Redeemer is a 30-meter statue of Jesus on top of Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Built from 1926 to 1931 out of reinforced concrete, it is covered in thousands of small soapstone triangles, and it stands on a pedestal 8 meters high.
Designed by engineer Heitor da Silva Costa with artist Carlos Oswald and sculptor Paul Landowski, the reinforced-concrete statue was built from 1926 and dedicated on October 12, 1931. It is an Art Deco work, a Catholic sanctuary and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site (2012).
Photo: Donatas Dabravolskas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Christ the Redeemer
Christ the Redeemer is in Rio de Janeiro, a big city in Brazil.
It is a giant statue of Jesus. It stands on top of a tall, green mountain called Corcovado. Its arms are spread out wide. From up there, you can see the city, the sea and the beaches.
Christ the Redeemer stands on the summit of Corcovado, a steep mountain about 710 meters high in the middle of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a statue of Jesus, proposed by the Catholic archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, with arms stretched out wide.
The statue itself is 30 meters tall, and its pedestal adds 8 meters more, so together they are as tall as a 13-story building. Its arms stretch 28 meters from hand to hand. It is a work of art, a famous symbol of Rio and Brazil, and a Catholic place of worship.
The monument crowns Corcovado inside Tijuca National Park, at about 710 m according to its sanctuary (Britannica gives the summit as 704 m). The statue is 30 m tall on an 8 m pedestal, 38 m in all; Britannica gives the arm span as 28 m (92 ft) and calls it the largest Art Deco-style sculpture in the world (2026).
The monument is a sanctuary of the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, raised to that status on October 12, 2006, its 75th anniversary. UNESCO's World Heritage Site "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea" (2012) includes "Corcovado Mountain with its celebrated statue of Christ", and UNESCO notes that images of the bay, Sugar Loaf and the statue have had worldwide recognition.
- Height
- 38 m: statue 30 m, pedestal 8 m
- Arm span
- 28 m (92 ft)
- Dedicated
- October 12, 1931
- Visitors to Alto Corcovado (2025)
- more than 2.8 million
From an idea to a monument
Long ago, a priest looked up at the mountain.
He dreamed of a big monument on top. Many years later, people in Brazil gave money to build it. The idea came back when Brazil was turning 100 years old as a country.
In the 1800s, a priest named Pierre-Marie Boss, who could see Corcovado from his church window, had the idea of a religious monument on the mountain. Nothing was built then.
The idea came back as Brazil prepared to celebrate 100 years of independence in 1922. More than 20,000 women signed a letter asking President Epitácio Pessoa to allow the statue, and a foundation stone was laid in 1922. The engineer Heitor da Silva Costa won the contest to design it. The money came from donations by people across Brazil.
Britannica dates the first proposal to the 1850s, when the Vincentian priest Pedro Maria (Pierre-Marie) Boss suggested a monument on Corcovado; it was never approved. In 1921 the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro proposed a statue of Christ there, and the sanctuary says that in 1922 more than twenty thousand women, led by the writer Laurita Lacerda, petitioned President Epitácio Pessoa for permission.
The foundation stone was laid on April 4, 1922, Brazil's independence centennial year, before a design was chosen. Heitor da Silva Costa won the competition with a figure holding a cross and a globe; with Carlos Oswald, who is credited with the open-armed pose, he changed the plan, and Paul Landowski is credited as the main designer of the head and hands. Funds were raised privately, principally by the Church, and the sanctuary says the cost was 2,500 contos.
How it was built
Workers built the statue on top of the mountain.
A little train carried the pieces up the steep slope. Inside, the statue is made of strong concrete. Outside, workers covered it with tiny triangles of stone.
Building began in 1926 and took five years. Materials and workers went up the mountain on the Corcovado railway, which had opened in 1884. The train carried the monument's pieces for four years.
The statue is made of reinforced concrete, which is concrete with steel bars inside. The engineer Albert Caquot, an expert in it, worked on the design. Silva Costa chose soapstone for the outside, a stone that is easy to shape, resists wear from the weather and is plentiful in Brazil. It was cut into thousands of small triangles, glued by hand onto cloth, and then fixed onto the statue by workers.
Under Silva Costa's supervision construction began in 1926 and lasted five years; Britannica says materials and workers reached the summit by railway, and the railway operator says its trains carried the monument's pieces for four consecutive years. The master engineer Heitor Levy lived on the summit from 1926 to 1931, using the pedestal as a site office, and the fiscal engineer was Pedro Fernandes Viana.
The structure is reinforced concrete, with the engineer Albert Caquot, a specialist in it, on the team. The sanctuary says the material kept the cost low, and that the monument was designed to withstand winds of up to 250 km/h. Its skin is soapstone, which Silva Costa chose as malleable and resistant to erosion: the stone was cut into thousands of triangles, glued by hand onto fabric and applied to the statue, and women of Rio society who glued the pieces wrote names on the backs of some of them. No source gives the number of workers.
Arms, head and pedestal
The statue's arms stretch out wide, like a big welcome.
Its head is very, very heavy. There is a heart shape on its chest. Inside, there are stairs that only the repair team uses.
The statue's arms stretch 28 meters from hand to hand. Its head alone weighs 30 tons, and on its chest is a heart shape that measures 1.30 meters.
The statue is hollow. Inside are 12 levels joined by stairs, which only the maintenance team uses, leading to hatches in the arms and the head. The statue stands on a square pedestal 8 meters high, on a viewing platform at the top of the mountain. At the base is a chapel where Catholic services are held.
Britannica describes the figure as reinforced concrete clad in a mosaic of thousands of triangular soapstone tiles, standing on a square stone pedestal about 8 m high on a deck at the summit. The sanctuary gives the head's weight as 30 tons and notes a stylized heart on the chest, measuring 1.30 m, representing the Sacred Heart, a Catholic symbol.
The hollow interior, used only by maintenance crews, has 12 levels linked by stairs that end at hatches opening in the arms and head. In 2006, for the 75th anniversary, a chapel at the base was consecrated to Our Lady of Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil in Catholic practice. The statue has been repaired several times, including a thorough cleaning in 1980 and a major surface refurbishment in 2010.
- Weight of the head
- 30 tons
- Heart on the chest
- 1.30 m
- Levels inside
- 12, joined by stairs
- Built to withstand winds of
- up to 250 km/h
The statue today
Today, millions of people visit the statue every year.
Some ride the little train up the mountain through the forest. On special days, the statue is lit up with special lights.
More than 2.8 million people visited Alto Corcovado, the summit where the statue stands, in 2025. Visitors can ride the railway through the Tijuca Forest, take official vans, or hike up on park trails. Since 2002, escalators and panoramic elevators have helped people reach the statue; before that, they climbed more than 200 steps.
The statue is also a Catholic sanctuary, with Mass held every day. On special days it is lit up with special lighting to mark events and campaigns. In 2007 it was chosen in an online vote as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Agência Brasil reported in April 2026 that visits to Alto Corcovado rose from 2.3 million in 2024 to more than 2.8 million in 2025, while Tijuca National Park as a whole, managed by the federal agency ICMBio, received a record 4,907,563 visitors, the most of any Brazilian national park for the 18th year running. The agency said ICMBio planned to open three new elevators and a viewpoint in 2026 and to repair the buttresses that hold up the rock under the visitors' platform.
As a sanctuary of the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, the monument holds daily Masses in its chapel or on the esplanade, as well as baptisms and weddings, and the sanctuary says scheduled pilgrimages enter free. Special lighting marks events and campaigns. On July 7, 2007, the sanctuary says, the statue was elected one of the New Seven Wonders of the Modern World by a popular vote on the internet.
Amazing facts
-
The statue is hollow, with stairs inside.
The statue is hollow. Inside are 12 levels joined by stairs, used only by the maintenance team, with hatches that open in the arms and the head.
The interior, used only by maintenance crews, has 12 levels linked by stairs that end at hatches in the arms and head.
-
Some stone pieces have names written on the back.
While gluing the soapstone triangles onto cloth, some of the women doing the work wrote the names of people they loved on the backs.
Women gluing the soapstone triangles to fabric wrote the names of loved ones on the backs of some tiles, the sanctuary says.
-
The train up the mountain is older than the statue.
The Corcovado railway opened in 1884, almost 50 years before the statue was finished. Its trains carried the statue's pieces up the mountain.
Opened by Emperor Pedro II in 1884 and electrified in 1910, the 3,824 m Corcovado railway carried the monument's pieces for four years.
-
The statue was built to stand up to very strong wind.
The statue was designed to stand up to winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour.
The sanctuary says the monument was designed for winds of up to 250 km/h.
Words to know
- statue
- a figure of a person or animal made from stone, metal, concrete or another hard material
- reinforced concrete
- concrete with steel bars inside to make it much stronger
- soapstone
- a soft, smooth stone that is easy to carve and lasts a long time outdoors
- pedestal
- the base that a statue stands on
- mosaic
- a picture or surface made of many small pieces fitted together
- sanctuary
- a holy place where people of a religion come to worship
Discovery challenge
-
Which city is the statue in?
Which city does Christ the Redeemer look out over?
Which city's Corcovado mountain is crowned by the statue?
- Rio de Janeiro
- São Paulo
- Brasília
Show the answer
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro! It is a big city by the sea in Brazil.
It stands on Corcovado, a mountain in the middle of Rio de Janeiro.
Corcovado rises inside Tijuca National Park in Rio de Janeiro, between Guanabara Bay and the Atlantic.
-
What covers the outside of the statue?
What is the outside of the statue covered with?
What material clads the statue's reinforced-concrete figure?
- Small soapstone triangles
- Sheets of gold
- Painted wood
Show the answer
Small soapstone triangles
Small stone triangles! There are thousands of them.
Thousands of small soapstone triangles were glued onto cloth and fixed to the statue like a mosaic.
A mosaic of thousands of triangular soapstone tiles, a stone Silva Costa chose as malleable and resistant to erosion.
-
How tall is the statue, without its base?
How tall is the statue itself, not counting the pedestal?
What is the height of the figure, excluding its 8 m pedestal?
- About 30 meters
- About 3 meters
- About 300 meters
Show the answer
About 30 meters
About 30 meters! That is very, very tall.
The statue is 30 meters tall. With its 8-meter pedestal, it reaches 38 meters, like a 13-story building.
30 m for the figure and 8 m for the pedestal, 38 m in all, with an arm span of 28 m.
-
What carried the pieces up the mountain?
How were the statue's materials carried up Corcovado?
Which transport took materials and workers to the summit during construction?
- A railway
- Hot-air balloons
- Helicopters
Show the answer
A railway
A train! It still takes visitors up the mountain today.
The Corcovado railway, which opened in 1884, carried the statue's pieces up the mountain.
The Corcovado railway of 1884; its operator says its trains carried the monument's pieces for four consecutive years.
-
When was the statue finished?
In which year was Christ the Redeemer dedicated?
In which year, on October 12, was the statue dedicated?
- 1931
- 1831
- 2001
Show the answer
1931
In 1931! That is almost 100 years ago.
It was dedicated on October 12, 1931, after five years of building.
Construction ran from 1926, and the statue was dedicated on October 12, 1931.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Rio de Janeiro and describe where the statue stands.
- Explain how the statue was built from reinforced concrete and covered with soapstone.
- Name the people who designed and engineered the monument.
- Describe the statue as a work of art, a symbol of a city and a place of worship.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Everything for the statue had to go up a steep mountain. What problems might the builders have faced?
- Why do you think a famous statue becomes a symbol of a whole city or country?
- Many people from different backgrounds visit the statue. How can we show respect when we visit a place of worship?
Try at home or in class
- Make a mosaic: cut colored paper into small triangles, glue them onto a sheet of paper and then stick the sheet onto a cardboard shape.
- Build a model with a stiff core: wrap clay around a pencil and around nothing at all, then compare which one bends more easily.
Key vocabulary: statue, reinforced concrete, soapstone, pedestal, mosaic, sanctuary
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Christ the Redeemer , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Curiosities , Sanctuary of Christ the Redeemer (official site, Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro)
- History in 1 Click , Sanctuary of Christ the Redeemer (official site, Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro)
- Sanctuary , Sanctuary of Christ the Redeemer (official site, Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro)
- Localização , Santuário Cristo Redentor (official site)
- Informações , Santuário Cristo Redentor (official site)
- História , Trem do Corcovado (Estrada de Ferro do Corcovado)
- Parque Nacional da Tijuca, no Rio, é o mais frequentado do país (April 2026) , Agência Brasil (EBC)
- Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 24, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.