Christ The Reedemer

Christ the Redeemer, one of the new seven wonders of the world, is a statue of Jesus Christ located in the Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil. The statue is 39.6 metres tall, it weighs 635 tonnes. This symbol of Christianity, the statue has become an icon of Rio and Brazil.
The idea for erecting a large statue atop Corcovado wasfirst suggested in the mid-1850s, when Catholic priest Pedro Maria Boss requested financing from Princess Isabel to build a large religious monument. Princess Isabel did not think much of the idea andit was totally dismissed in 1889, when Brazil became a republic with laws mandating the separation of church and state. The second proposal for a landmark statue on the mountain was made in 1921 bythe Catholic Circle of Rio. This group organised an event called Semana do Monument to attract donations and collect signatures to support the building of the statue. The designs considered for the"Statue of the Christ" included a representation of the Christian cross, a statue of Jesus with a globe in his hands, and a pedestal symbolizing the world. The statue of Christ the Redeemer with openarms was chosen, beacuase they thought the Christ with a globe would look more like a footballer Christ. It is a symbol of peace as well.
Local engineer Heitor da Silva Costa designed the statue; itwas sculpted by French sculptor Paul Landowski. The construction took nine years, from 1922 to octuber, 1931 it cost at that time US$250,000 ($3,068,097 in 2011).
In October 2006, on the statue's 75thanniversary, Archbishop of Rio Cardinal Eusebio Oscar Scheid consecrated a chapel (named after the patron saint of Brazil—Nossa Senhora Aparecida, or "Our Lady of the Apparition,") under the statue.This allows Catholics to hold baptisms and weddings there.
The statue was struck by a lightning during a violent electrical storm on Sunday, February 10, 2008 and suffered some damage on the...