Cristo Rei (Almada)
The Cristo Rei is a Christ statue in Almada , Lisbon Portugal .
meaning
With outstretched arms, the figure of the turns of Christ the King of the Ponte 25 de Abril and the city of Lisbon to. It stands on a 75 m high base. This is located 113 m above the Tagus . The statue itself is 28 m high, making it the seventh highest statue of Christ in the world. The monument is one of the tallest structures in Portugal and the main attraction in Almada . Because of its height, the statue is one of the best viewpoints in Lisbon. Along with Fátima and Santiago de Compostela, it is one of the three most important pilgrimage sites on the Iberian Peninsula .
history
When the Archbishop of Lisbon Dom Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira visited the then capital of Brazil in 1934, the Cristo Redentor ( 30 m high) inaugurated in 1931 (Rio de Janeiro) inspired him to create a replica in Lisbon. He managed to convince the Portuguese episcopate of his plan. At a meeting on April 20, 1940 in Fátima, the bishops vowed to erect the statue if God should spare Portugal from the Second World War .
After the end of the war, construction of the statue began on December 18, 1949. The Christ sculpture was made by the Portuguese sculptor Francisco Franco de Sousa . The Portuguese architect António Lino designed the base. After around ten years of construction, the statue was inaugurated on Pentecost Sunday May 17, 1959. 300,000 people attended, including the archbishops of the Archdiocese of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro and the Archdiocese of Lourenço Marques . Pope John XXIII was not present and sent his greetings. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the inauguration, a plan to expand the site was approved in 1984. A reception center with administration buildings and a chapel was built. The buildings were renovated in 2001/02 . On May 17, 2007, the Sala João XXIII with eight paintings on the subject of Pax in Terris was inaugurated. On the same day, the Cruz Alta , which had previously been in the sanctuary of Fátima, was laid in front of the statue .
See also
Web links
- ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: website of the Santuário Nacional de Cristo Rei )
- Pictures of Cristo Rei (chapel)
Individual evidence
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Map of the Geographical Institute of the Portuguese Military )
- ↑ History of the statue of Christ from Almada ( Memento of the original from February 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (engl.)
Coordinates: 38 ° 40 ′ 43.3 " N , 9 ° 10 ′ 17.5" W.