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Bavarian towns hoping to claim huge cement Jesus statue

DDP/The Local
DDP/The Local - [email protected]
Bavarian towns hoping to claim huge cement Jesus statue
Photo: DPA

A 55-metre-tall (180-foot) Jesus statue recently rejected by two towns has sparked the interest of more than a dozen Bavarian communities interested in distinguishing their landscape with the massive redeemer, project organiser Harry Vossburg said on Monday.

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“There is a regular onslaught, one can’t say it any other way,“ Vossburg said. “We have interested communities from the Allgäu all the way to the Upper Franconia region, in the Bavarian Forest and in the Fichtelgebirge mountain range.”

The super Jesus – which was designed by architect Ludwig Angerer der Ältere to be 20 metres taller than the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – was recently rejected by the towns Bad Reichenhall and Wassertrüdingen. But Vossburg said he hadn't given up, and now inquiries from the heavily Catholic Bavarian state are pouring in.

“It’s really astonishing,” he said. “God works in mysterious ways.”

Vossberg said the project has investors willing to pay for the cement statue to be built on the crest of a hill or mountain top, though he refuses to name the sum. The entrepreneur hopes the enormous statue would be a tourist attraction like the Statue of Liberty.

Rödental is among the cities hoping to get their hands on statue. One builder in Breitengüßbach is even gunning to put the cement Christ figure in an amusement park.

While Vossburg said the statue has been a sign of Christian solidarity, many church officials have spoken against the statue.

“If the city of Rödental seriously considers this project, then one will certainly have to review the sense and purpose of the whole matter,” the Bamburg archbishopric said.

Vossburg and project investors plan to meet this week to discuss which town the massive saviour will call home.

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