Overview
- Officials present it as the world’s largest statue dedicated to Our Lady of Fátima, standing taller than Rio’s 38-meter Christ the Redeemer.
- The Nov. 13 inauguration featured a mass and blessing led by Bishop Magnus Henrique and drew about 35,000 attendees, according to the city.
- Sculptor Ranilson Viana’s piece was built in modular sections with a polyurethane core and fiberglass-resin exterior over about one year and five months by a team of more than 30.
- The monument replaces a 45-meter figure installed in 2014 and continues a local devotion rooted in a Fátima image that arrived from Portugal in 1953.
- A new sanctuary and pilgrim services accompany the site, which Ceará’s government is promoting as a cornerstone of the region’s religious-tourism circuit.