Christ the King in Świebodzin, a huge monument to Jesus in western Poland

The Catholic religion has been and remains one of the main pillars of Polish culture and national identity.

The Christ the Redeemer of Corcovado in some impressive bird's-eye views
The Hill of the Angels, witness of the red terror in Spain: thus attacked a monument to Christ

Religious faith kept the flame of Poland burning even when the country was wiped off the map during the third partition in 1795, and also during the period when the Polish people were subjected to the two great totalitarianisms of the 20th century, nazism and communism.

Interestingly, until a few years ago, Poland was one of the few major Catholic countries that did not have a large monument to Christ. For example, Spain has four, the most famous being the Hill of tne Angels in Getafe. There are even monuments to Jesus in places as remote as South Korea (Wolmyeongdong) and Indonesia (a country with a Muslim majority but which has three monuments to Christ).

Polish Catholic priest Sylwester Zawadzki was the main promoter of Poland's eventual elevation on the world map of great monuments to Christ. Father Zawadzki was appointed parish priest of the Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland in Świebodzin, in the diocese of Zielona Góra-Gorzów (western Poland), in July 1981, a few months before the communist dictatorship decreed Martial Law, which unleashed a wave of repression against the pro-democracy protests of the Catholic trade union Solidarność. Father Zawadzki was actively involved in the protests by organising patriotic masses, when something like this could have cost him his life, as demonstrated by the murder of the priest Jerzy Popiełuszko in 1984.

In 2000, Father Zawadzki began promoting the construction of a monument to Christ the King, with the aim of making one that would be larger than the famous Christ the Redeemer of Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which measures 38 meters, and the Christ of the Concord of Cochambamba, Bolivia, which measures 40.4 meters. The Polish sculptor Mirosław Kazimierz Patecki was in charge of the design of the statue.

Unlike other large monuments, Christ the King in Świebodzin was built entirely with private donations from various countries around the world. The work began with the construction of a 16.5-metre-high mound made of stones and rubble. Father Zawadzki wanted the numbers on this monument to have a meaning. The pedestal is divided into five rings, representing the five continents. The statue would be 33 metres high, one for each year of Jesus’ life, and would be crowned with a 3-metre-high golden crown, one for each year of the Messiah’s public activity. In total, the whole would be 52 metres high, making it the largest monument to Christ in the world.

After years of planning and construction, the monument to Christ the King in Świebodzin was unveiled on 21 November 2010 and consecrated by the then Bishop of Zielona Góra-Gorzów, Monsignor Stefan Regmunt. The statue is made of meshed concrete, is white in colour and is estimated to weigh 440 tonnes. Like the Christ the King in Świebodzin, the Christ the King in Świebodzin has his hands raised, giving him a majestic appearance. During its consecration, Monsignor Regmunt stated: "The monument is a visible sign of faith in Christ". You can watch a video by Eagle Eye Drone showing the monument from a drone's view here:

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Main image: Eagle Eye Drone.