Corcovado & Christ The Redeemer Statue
Corcovado & Christ The Redeemer Statue Historical Timeline
History
Origins
The idea of a religious monument atop Corcovado dates to the 1850s, when a Catholic priest first proposed such a landmark to Brazil's Princess Isabel, though the idea went nowhere at the time. It resurfaced in the 1920s, championed by Rio's Catholic Circle as a way to mark the upcoming centennial of Brazil's 1822 independence from Portugal.
Turning points
Construction began in 1922 and took nine years, well past the intended 1922 centennial date, finally completed and inaugurated on October 12, 1931. French structural engineer Albert Caquot devised the reinforced concrete framework that let the statue's arms extend outward without external supports, a genuinely difficult engineering problem for the time. The statue became a global media fixture decades later when it was named one of the New7Wonders of the World in a 2007 global public poll, and in 2012 UNESCO inscribed Corcovado, alongside other Rio landmarks, as part of the "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea" World Heritage Site.
Influential people
Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa led the statue's design and construction from proposal through completion. French sculptor Paul Landowski created the statue's head and hands, the only parts sculpted directly by an artist rather than engineered as structural elements, and Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida is credited with crafting the statue's face.
Cultural evolution
What began as a religious commemoration has become a secular symbol recognized well beyond Brazil's Catholic population -- the statue appears throughout Brazilian popular culture and international media as shorthand for Rio itself, regardless of the religious intent behind its construction.
Present-day significance
Christ the Redeemer remains one of the most photographed monuments in the world and a defining part of Rio's skyline, drawing millions of visitors annually to a mountaintop that, before the 20th century, had no permanent structure at all.