It should be referred that the history started in the 16th Century when the Portuguese named the mountain Pináculo da Tentaçãoalluding to the Biblical Mountain. It took nearly a century, to rename the place into to Corcovado, a name derived from its form, which resembles a hump or hunchback.

Since then no prints are found until 1924 about it. The next recordings depict that Dom Pedro personally led the first official expedition to Corcovado Mountain, resulting in the opening of an accessible way up.

In 1859 the Vincentian father Pedro Maria Boss arrived Rio de Janeiro. He admired the venue and got struck by the mysterious beauty of the Corcovado Mountain. Thus, he suggested the construction of a religious monument.

From 1859 to 1921, Dom Pedro gave his consent for the building of the Corcovado Railroad line between Cosme Velho and Paineiras. In 1922 the construction work began for fulfilling this ambitious project. On the 22th April the fundamental stone was being put in place.
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1931 – Is the famous year in the Statue of Christ the Redeemer history, because the monument was inaugurated on the 12 October of this particular year. The final design of the monument was authored by the fine artist Carlos Oswald and the French Sculptor Paul Landowski was placed in charge of executing the sculpture. The monument of Christ, the Redeemer on the Corcovado Mountain becomes the largest art déco sculpture in the world.

Until now, several reforms (mostly technical ones) have been completed to ensure the quality of O Christo Redentor. Lighting has been added, and the latest renewal of September 2002 is the addition of a panoramic elevator and motorized staircase to ease the difficulty for elderly persons as long as visitors found is hard to rise on the 220 steps which led to the top.
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However, the sculpture has gone through some hard times within its past. It was struck by lightning during a violent electrical storm on Sunday, February 10, 2008. The storm caused havoc in Rio, felling trees in several neighborhoods, but the statue was left unscathed.

The statue’s features are 30metres (98 feet tall), weight 700 tons. It is located at the peak of the 700 m (2,296 ft) Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. It is the tallest of its kind of statues in the world.

A symbol of Christianity, the statue has become an icon of Rio and Brazil. When the decision was made to make such a statue, several designs were considered like a representation of the Christian cross, a statue of Jesus with a globe in his hands, and a pedestal symbolizing the world. But the statue of Christ the Redeemer with open arms was finally decided.

As of 7 July 2007, Christ the Redeemer was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a list compiled by the Swiss-based The New Open World Corporation.

Sources:

• http://www.copacabana.info/Christ-the-Redeemer-history.html
• http://triggerpit.com/2011/04/05/christ-the-redeemer-rio-de-janeiro-brazil/

The storyline along the statue goes as following: The island of Rhodes was an important economic center in the ancient world. It is located off the southwestern tip of Asia Minor where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean. The capitol city, also named Rhodes, was built in 408 B.C. and was designed to take advantage of the island’s best natural harbor on the northern coast. It was often the reason of wars which lasted for centuries. Capturing this blossoming territory meant holding the reins of the economic at hand. Thus, it was ruled by such well-known conqueror as Alexander the Great. After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, his heritage was left without a assigned governor as much as Alexander couldn’t call the name of future emperor. Fighting broke out among his generals, the Diadochi, with four of them eventually dividing much of his empire in the Mediterranean area. As a result Ptolemy took control of Egypt, Rhodes and Ptolemaic Egypt formed an alliance which controlled much of the trade in the eastern Mediterranean.
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Antigonus I Monophthalmus was upset by this turn of events. In 305 BC he had his son Demetrius Poliorcetes, also a general, invade Rhodes with an army of 40,000; however, the city was well-defended and it was nearly impossible to get through the walls, which was around the city. Demetrius tried to build number of siege towers in order to get access to the walls. But all was in vain.
In 304 BC a relief force of ships sent by Ptolemy arrived, and Demetrius’s army abandoned the siege, leaving most of their siege equipment. To celebrate their victory, the Rhodians sold the equipment left behind for 300 talents]and decided to use the money to build a colossal statue of their patron god, Helios. Construction was left to the direction of Chares, a native of Lindos in Rhodes, who had been involved with large-scale statues before.

Most likely the construction started in 292 BC; This belief seems more true even, though it’s often said that work over it began in 304 BC. However, according to Pliny, a historian who lived several centuries after the Colossus was built, construction took 12 years.

Modern engineers have put forward a plausible hypothesis for the statue construction, based on the technology of those days (which was not based on the modern principles of earthquake engineering), and the accounts of Philo and Pliny who both saw and described the remains.]The statue was one hundred and ten feet high and stood upon a fifty-foot pedestal near the harbor entrance perhaps on a breakwater. Although the statue has sometimes been popularly depicted with its legs spanning the harbor entrance so that ships could pass beneath, it was actually posed in a more traditional Greek manner. Historians believe the figure was nude or semi-nude with a cloak over its left arm or shoulder. Some think it was wearing a spiked crown, shading its eyes from the rising sun with its right hand, or possibly using that hand to hold a torch aloft in a pose similar to one later given to the Statue of Liberty.

No ancient account mentions the harbor-spanning pose and it seems unlikely the Greeks would have depicted one of their gods in such an awkward manner. In addition, such a pose would mean shutting down the harbor during the construction, something not economically feasible.

The statue itself was constructed of bronze plates over an iron framework (very similar to the Statue of Liberty which is copper over a steel frame). According to the book of Pilon of Byzantium, 15 tons of bronze were used and 9 tons of iron, though these numbers seem low to modern architects. The Statue of Liberty, roughly of the same size, weighs 225 tons. The Colossus, which relied on weaker materials, must have weighed at least as much and probably more.
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Ancient accounts tell us that inside the statue were several stone columns which acted as the main support. Iron beams were driven into the stone and connected with the bronze outer skin. Each bronze plate had to be carefully cast then hammered into the right shape for its location in the figure, then hoisted into position and riveted to the surrounding plates and the iron frame.

Some stories say that a massive earthen ramp was used to access the statue during construction. Modern engineers, however, calculate that such a ramp running all the way to the top of the statue would have been too massive to be practical. This lends credence to stories that the wood from the Helepolis seige engine was reused to build a scaffolding around the statue while it was being assembled.

The architect of this great construction was Chares of Lindos, a Rhodian sculptor who was a patriot and fought in defense of the city. It is believed Chares did not live to see his project finished. There are several legends that he committed suicide. In one tale he has almost finished the statue when someone points out a small flaw in the construction. The sculptor is so ashamed of it he kills himself.
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The statue stood for 56 years until Rhodes was hit by the 226 BC Rhodes earthquakes, when significant damage was also done to large portions of the city, including the harbor and commercial buildings, which were destroyed. The statue snapped at the knees and fell over on to the land. Ptolemy III offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but the oracle of Delphi made the Rhodians afraid that they had offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild it.

The remains lay on the ground as described by Strabo for over 800 years, and even broken, they were so impressive that many traveled to see them. Pliny the Elder remarked that few people could wrap their arms around the fallen thumb and that each of its fingers was larger than most statues.

In 654, an Arab force under Muslim caliph Muawiyah I captured Rhodes, and according to the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor, the remains were sold to a “Jewish merchant of Edessa”. The buyer had the statue broken down, and transported the bronze scrap on the backs of 900 camels to his home.

While these fanciful images feed the misconception, the mechanics of the situation reveal that the Colossus could not have straddled the harbor as described in Lemprière’s Classical Dictionary. If the completed statue straddled the harbor, the entire mouth of the harbor would have been effectively closed during the entirety of the construction; nor would the ancient Rhodians have had the means to dredge and re-open the harbor after construction. The statue fell in 224 BC: if it straddled the harbor mouth, it would have entirely blocked the harbor. Also, since the ancients would not have had the ability to remove the entire statue from the harbor, it would not have remained visible on land for the next 800 years, as discussed above. Even neglecting these objections, the statue was made of bronze, and an engineering analysis proved that it could not have been built with its legs apart without collapsing from its own weight. Many researchers have considered alternate positions for the statue which would have made it more feasible for actual construction by the ancients.

The design, posture and dimensions of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor are based on what the Colossus was thought by engineers in the late 19th century to have looked like. Every person that gets an opportunity to travel to New York gets marvelous sight, Standing on a small island in the harbor is an immense statue of a robed woman, holding a book and lifting a torch to the sky. The statue measures almost one-hundred and twenty feet from foot to crown. It is sometimes referred to as the “Modern Colossus,” but more often called the Statue of Liberty.

This awe-inspiring statue was a gift from France to America and is easily recognized by people around the world. What many visitors to this shrine to freedom don’t know is that the statue, the “Modern Colossus,” is the echo of another statue, the original colossus, which we have talked so much about above, that stood over two thousand years ago at the entrance to another busy harbor on the Island of Rhodes. Like the Statue of Liberty, this colossus was also built as a celebration of freedom.

It’s worth to be mentioned that the Statue of Zeus is one and only creation from the other six worlds’ ancient wonders which was located on the Europe Continent.

Furthermore, it was considered to be the most famous artistic work in all of Greece and made profound and intense impressions of the viewer. The philosophers, ancient travelers, writers were certainly amazed when they witnessed the beauty of this statue. Philo of Byzantium, was one of those whose manuscripts about all of the wonders were kept till today, but when you glance through them the inspiration and ardor is felt while he touches the theme of the king of the Gods, Zeus.
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He wrote “Whereas we just wonder at the other six wonders, we kneel in front of this one in reverence, because the execution of the skill is as incredible as the image of Zeus is holy…” To the Greeks the statue of Olympian Zeus was the incarnate god, and not to have seen it at least once in one’s lifetime was considered a misfortune.

Olympic Games were the reason once every four years when all the wars, between the countries declared truce, conflicts were terminated in order to give safe passage to the athletes to travel from distant lands, including Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and Sicily, to participate, compete and shrine the King of their gods, Zeus, in honor of which this most important festivals, the Olympic Games were organized. Olympics started in 776 B.C and it helped to unify the Greek city-states.

The spot where the competitions were actually held consisted of a stadium and a sacred grove, or Altis, where a number of temples were located. The worshiping to Zeus here was simple and ordinary in the early years, but as time went by and the games increased in importance, it became obvious that a new, larger temple, one worthy of the King of the gods, was needed. Thus, the construction on a new temple started between 470 and 460 B.C.,.

Thus the temple followed already well-maintained and often used design of large Grecian temples; it showed some similarities towards the Parthenon in Athens and the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. The outlook of the temple was like this: it was built on a raised, rectangular platform. Thirteen large columns supported the roof along the sides and six supported on each end. The temple was covered with gently-peaked roof, where the pediments depicted the twelve labors of Heracles.

Even though the temple was considered one of the best examples of the Doric design because of its style and the quality of the workmanship, it is not the one which was declared as the ancient wonders of the world. However, a statue of Zeus specially made for the interior, to make it more superficial, otherwise it was too simple and usual for worshiping the god of the gods. When some philosophers argue that statue didn’t fit the interior of the temple, even though it was quite big, others assume that the proportions were very effective in conveying the god’s size and power.

Sometimes it said that Zeus presided over the Olympic Games. As much as he was ruling over the gods from his exalted throne on the top Mount Olympus, Zeus was eligible to see everything, reward good conduct, punish evil, and govern all. Greeks thought that he was the bringer of thunder and lightning, rain, and winds, and his weapon was the thunderbolt. He was the protector of cities, the home, strangers and supplicants. This sublime feelings and attitudes towards Zeus conditioned that the sculptor chosen for this great task, man named Phidias sculptured the figure of Zeus as it nearly grazed the roof.

Talking about the person who was honored to do this great job, the best work of his life, Phidias was already quite experienced and well-known as he had already rendered a forty-foot high statue of the goddess Athena for the Parthenon in Athens and had done much on the exterior of that temple itself. After arriving on Olympia he set up the workshop to the west of the temple and it took 12 years to complete the project.

The seated statue of Zeus itself was about 43 feet (12 meters) tall, 22 feet (10 meters) wide. The technique by which the statue was constructed is known as chryselephantine, where gold-plated bronze and ivory sections were attached to the wooden flame. Withstanding the fact that the weather in Olympia was so humid, the statue required the essential care. It’s said that Phidias held the responsibility for this maintenance for centuries. Thoughtful and creative Phidias invented the method of treating it with olive oil, which also served as reflecting pool and gave the effect of illuminating the statue. The figure’s skin itself was composed of ivory and the beard, hair and robe of gold. Perhaps even more impressive than the statue it was the throne made out of gold, ebony, ivory and inlaid with precious stones.

In his right hand the statue held the figure of crowned Nike, the goddess of victory, also chryselephantine and in its left was a scepter with an eagle perched on the top. Carved into the chair were figures of Greek gods and mystical animals, including the half man/half lion sphinx.

The date of the statue, the third quarter of the 5th century BC, long a subject of debate, was confirmed archaeologically by the rediscovery and excavation of Phidias’ workshop.

The sculptor of this world-famous statue after returning to his home-city was accused of stealing the gold meant for the statue of the goddess Athena and ended up his life in jail. However his masterpiece continued to live and astonish visitor’s eyes until it was damaged in an earthquake in 170 B.C. and then repaired. However, much of its majesty was probably lost after Emperor Constantine decreed that gold be stripped from all pagan shrines after he converted to Christianity in the early fourth century A.D.. Then in 392 A.D. the Olympics were abolished by Emperor Theodosius I of Rome, a Christian who saw the games as a pagan rite. After that according to the Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos, the statue was moved by a wealthy Greek named Lausus to the city of Constantinople where it became part of his private collection of classical art. It is believed that the remains of the statue were destroyed by a fire that swept the city in 475 A.D.. However, other sources say the statue was still at the Olympic Temple when it burned down in 425 A.D..
The greatest discovery around this sculpture came in 1954–1958 with the excavation of the workshop at Olympia where Phidias created the statue. Tools, terracotta moulds and a cup were found at the site. The Cup extensively showed the inscribed “I belong to Phidias” note and furthermore that was a place where the traveler Pausanias said the Zeus was constructed. This has enabled archaeologists to re-create the techniques used to make the great work and confirm its date.

Of course the copies of the statue were made, but none of them survive, though pictures found on coins give researchers clues about its appearance.

Thus, one thing is true, the statue of Zeus, during the centuries was such an impressive, exciting and powerful image of god that, “If a man, with a heavy heart from grief and sorrow in life, will stand in front of the statue, he will forget all these.”