The ‘Christ the Protector’ statue is being erected in Encantado, a small town in the southernmost part of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul, by a local organization called the Friends of Christ Association (AACristo).
According to AACristo, it will be 43 meters (141 feet) high of steel and concrete – 16 feet longer than Christ the Savior of Rio.
The statue is 141 feet long.
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The organization said the statue would be the third tallest statue of Jesus in the world, after a 249-foot statue currently being built in Mexico and a 172-foot monument in Poland.
The statue is the work of sculptor Genésio Gomes Moura and his son, Markus Moura. The head and arms were installed on April 6 and construction, which began in July 2019, would be completed by the end of this year, according to AACristo.
It is 16 feet higher than the statue of Christ the Savior in Rio de Janeiro.
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It costs a total of $ 353,000 in total, and AACristo is asking for donations to complete the project.
An elevator installed in the statue will take tourists to the lookout point at the height of Christ.
“It will be a glass opening from which people can film and photograph the valley,” Artur Lopes de Souza, chief project supervisor, said on the AACristo website.
The aim is to promote tourism in the area, which is close to Brazil’s borders with Uruguay and Argentina.
The Christ the Redeemer statue has been overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro for almost 90 years and is one of Brazil’s most famous tourist attractions.