Rio's Christ statue has rival

2009-01-06 19:09

Sao Paulo - A little-known Brazilian farming town with sugar cane wealth is set to upstage Rio de Janeiro by erecting a statue of Christ that will eclipse its famous equivalent atop Rio's Corcovado Mountain.

The Christ statue in Sertaozinho, northwest of Sao Paulo city, will be 57 metres tall when perched on its 39-metre pedestal, Brazilian daily newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo said on Tuesday.

Rio's iconic statue overlooking the beach-side city measures up at 30 metres high, and its much shorter pedestal gives it a total height of just 38 metres.

"Far from a pretence of grandeur, we're thinking about visibility," said Nerio Costa, mayor of the town 330 kilometres from Sao Paulo which hopes to inaugurate the $681 000 structure at Easter.

But those suspicious that Sertaozinho, with a population of just over 100 000, is trying to rival the country's top tourist city can cite other evidence.

The agricultural town also boasts a lake-side artificial beach built at a cost of $3.64m, Folha said.

- Reuters