The most famous sculpture in Brazil, Christ the Redeemer, gained a “brother” a little taller in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul. With the main works completed last Friday (22), the Cristo Protetor de Encantado, in Vale do Taquari, 143 km from Porto Alegre, is already receiving visitors.
“I wouldn’t dare to make a stylized Christ like the one in Rio. So I chose to make a more realistic and youthful version of him, with the expression on his face he would have at 33”, says Moisés Markus Moura, 42, the sculptor responsible for Ceará. by the work.
At 43.5 meters (combining the 37 meters of the statue and the pedestal), the monument is 5.5 meters taller than the Redentor, in Rio de Janeiro. The carioca monument has 30 meters of statue and eight meters of pedestal.
Moura also wanted to pay a subtle tribute to the Taquari Valley in the statue, a way of repaying the hospitality that he and his father, also sculptor Genésio Gomes Moura, 67, received in the state.
That’s why, he says, he designed the Christ’s hair “slightly fluttering”, as if he were actually feeling the wind in the valleys of Rio Grande do Sul on his face.
With the remains of the Christ, Moura also sculpted a life-size statue of Adroaldo Conzatti (PSDB), former mayor of Encantado, who died at the age of 81, in March last year, due to complications from Covid-19. The tribute was a request from the family.
The main distinguishing feature of the Christ the Protector is a hollowed out and glazed heart on the statue’s chest, 33 meters high. The space, accessible by an internal elevator, is a viewpoint overlooking the valleys.
The Moura family also sculpted the former record holder, the 39-meter Christ of Elói Mendes (MG). They also created the Cristo Luz, from Balneário Camboriú (SC), which has one of its arms outstretched while the other holds a spotlight that illuminates the city.
The works of Cristo Protetor began in 2019 at the initiative and with the resources of local businessmen, who formed the Associação Amigos de Cristo. The estimated cost is R$ 3 million.
According to the monument’s website, guided tours take place on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays and cost R$ 20 for visitors over 12 years old, reverted to the works.
It is still possible to donate funds for the completion of the monument. For amounts between BRL 1,000 and BRL 30,000 it is possible to have the name written on a plate. Donations below this amount, according to those responsible, will be recorded in a book that will be accessible at the monument site.
Before the official opening, which should take place in the second half of the year, additional works must still be completed: a viewpoint at the foot of the Christ, like the one in Rio, and a parking lot.
