To celebrate the feast of the Assumption today, Poland has inaugurated the tallest statue of the Virgin Mary anywhere in Europe, in the tiny village of Konotopie, north west of Warsaw and home to only some 150 people.
At 55 metres, it is taller than the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, which only measures some 38 meters, and second in the world after the Mother of All Asia statue in the Philippines. See how it dwarfs the vehicles in the picture above.
Local media suggested the cost was around 23 million euros, paid by a Polish billionaire, while officials in nearby Kikol, one of the region’s poorest municipalities, hope it will attract pilgrims and create jobs. But some residents felt the money would have been better spent on a hospital or orphanage.
Read the story in EuroNews here.