Jesus statue in Poland now taller than one in Rio de Janerio

A 118-foot tall statue of Jesus Christ recently completed in the western Polish town of Swiebodzin is now the tallest statue of Christ in the world.

The all-white statue, carved with a flowing robe and topped by a golden crown, has an estimated weight of 485 tons. It is visible from the highway linking Warsaw and Berlin.

Catholic priest Fr. Sylwester Zawadzki launched the project five years ago.

“I didn't especially mean to build the world's tallest Christ. I just wanted it to measure 33m like the 33 years that Christ was alive,” Zawadzki said, according to Agence France Presse. He reported that the statue’s three-meter tall crown makes the statue taller than the Rio de Janerio’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue.

The statue’s base is an earthen mound 52 feet high. Its arms stretch almost 79 feet.

Thirty-two-year-old resident Izabela Sawicz said the statue will “symbolize” the town.

“Our priest has made a second Czestochowa,” she said, referring to the Polish Marian shrine.

A local government official said no public money was spent on the statue. He said it will promote the town and attract tourists.

Another nearby resident thought it was an “exaggeration” and a waste of money that should have been spent on a school.

According to AFP, the project cost about $1.4 million. Fr. Zawadzki said it was financed by private donations collected in Poland and abroad.

“He will be the greatest preacher of the faith,” the priest said. “Europe needs preachers like Christ.”