A Towering 182-Feet-Tall Statue in Rural Poland Is Now the Tallest Virgin Mary in All of Europe. Locals Hope It Will Become a Tourist Destination
The steel and concrete monument honoring the mother of Jesus is located in Konotopie, a rural village about 100 miles from Warsaw
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A towering statue of the Virgin Mary now stands guard over a small, remote village in Poland. The statue itself is 133 feet tall, and its crown-shaped base adds an additional 49 feet. It is believed to be the tallest monument of its kind in Europe and the second-tallest in the world.
Konotopie is located in central Poland, roughly 100 miles northwest of Warsaw, the nation’s capital. The new Our Lady of Mercy statue was erected in a field, standing not far from a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, reports Vatican News' Paweł Rytel-Andrianik. The chapel is a popular destination for pilgrims, and officials hope the new monument will help make Konotopie an even more popular pilgrimage site, as well as a tourist destination.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is one of the most revered figures in Christianity, particularly within the Catholic Church. Around the world, Catholics honor her through statues, shrines, paintings, icons, figurines and other religious artwork, including T-shirts.
Did you know? Poland is one of the most Catholic countries in Europe.
- According to Poland’s Institute for Catholic Church Statistics, more than 70 percent of the country’s population identifies as Roman Catholic. Catholic traditions and Marian devotion have played a major role in Polish culture and history for centuries.
- Not accounting for microstates like Vatican City or San Marino, where Catholics comprise practically 100 percent of the populace, Italy has the second-largest population share of Catholics behind Poland
“Here in Konotopie, we lift our eyes upward,” Krzysztof Wętkowski, bishop of the Diocese of Włocławek, said during the Mass and blessing of the statue on August 15, as reported by Vatican News. “We lift our eyes toward Mary, who directs us toward God. Yes, Our Lady of Mercy is meant to remind us of God.”
During the ceremony, helicopters buzzed overhead and dropped miniature red roses over the crowd, which included Lech Wałęsa, a 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his nonviolent struggle for workers’ rights and democracy in Poland. He also served as the nation’s president from 1990 to 1995.
Now 82, Wałęsa told Associated Press (AP) reporters Claudia Ciobanu and Rafal Niedzielski that “this is the end of my path.”
“I started with the Virgin Mary and I end with the Virgin Mary,” he added.
The newly unveiled Our Lady of Mercy statue in Poland was commissioned and funded by Roman and Grażyna Karkosik, who live nearby. According to the AP, Roman Karkosik is one of the wealthiest individuals in Poland, having made his fortune in manufacturing and investments. Made of concrete and steel, the statue cost roughly $26 million to erect, per Euronews’ Ilaria Federico.
“The statue will be for all people,” Grażyna Karkosik told the Associated Press. “Each of us coming to see it will think more deeply about their own lives, not only about God.”
Visitors can ascend to a terrace inside the statue’s crown-shaped, 49-foot-tall pedestal, where they can take in sweeping views of the surrounding landscape.
As Aleks Phillips writes for BBC News, Konotopie’s Our Lady of Mercy is roughly “two double-decker buses” taller than the full height of Christ the Redeemer, the 124-foot statue of Jesus Christ that has overlooked Rio de Janeiro from Mount Corcovado since 1931. It’s also taller than Christ the King, a 170-foot-tall depiction of Jesus Christ unveiled in 2010 in Swiebodzin, Poland, located some 210 miles to the west of Konotopie, as well as Cristo Protetor, a 143-foot-tall Jesus statue in Encantado, Brazil.
The new statue, however, is shorter than Mother of All Asia – Tower of Peace, a 322-foot-tall Virgin Mary monument shrine in the Philippines.
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