Measuring exactly 21.13 meters in height and weighing approximately 400 tons, the Christ the Redeemer of Maratea was completed in 1965 but never received an official inauguration ceremony due to political friction following the 1964 local elections. Second in size in Italy only to the Colossus of San Carlo Borromeo, the massive sculpture crowns the rocky summit of Mount San Biagio. It was commissioned by the Piedmontese entrepreneur Count Stefano Rivetti di Val Cervo, who proposed the project in 1961. The statue replaced a 1942 concrete cross erected by the podestà Biagio Vitolo, which itself had replaced a 1907 wrought-iron cross marking an 1806 siege by 4,500 French soldiers at the nearby ruins of Maratea Castello.
What to see
The monument is the collaborative masterpiece of Florentine artist Bruno Innocenti and structural engineer Luigi Musumeci. Rising directly from the bare earth without any pedestal, the figure is defined by the subtle forward step of its left foot emerging from beneath the tunic. The outer shell, approximately 20 centimeters thick, was formed from concrete mixed with Seravezza marble flakes, poured over a 14-ton steel skeleton anchored deep into the mountain rock. Between late 1964 and early 1965, Innocenti personally chiseled the entire surface of the statue, aided by a Friulian construction company and local workers from Maratea and Lauria. The 3-meter-tall head breaks with classical iconography: the hair is short and the beard is barely visible, a stylistic choice that art critic Marco Fagioli compares to Innocenti's depictions of angels. The arms span roughly 19 meters in a gesture evoking the Lord's Prayer, with the right arm slightly higher than the left. While the body curves inland toward the Basilica of Saint Blaise, Innocenti shaped the back of the head so that, from a distance, it resembles a face looking out over the sea and the port of Maratea. Behind the statue, visitors will find a panoramic belvedere and a small plaque bearing a Latin epigraph in raised lettering.
Visiting
The site serves as a prominent gathering space for both religious and cultural events. In July 2013, it hosted an interdiocesan gathering for World Youth Day, an event that sparked the idea of twinning Maratea with Rio de Janeiro. This bond with the world's most famous Christ the Redeemer was officially signed on October 16, 2021, during the Brazilian national holiday Dia da Italia, and is now commemorated by two plaques placed beneath the monument. Since 2014, the site's maintenance has been supported by a non-profit foundation established by Chiara Rivetti di Val Cervo. The statue is firmly embedded in popular culture: it features on the logo of the local Pro Loco association, acts as a symbol of patriarchal authority in Ingeborg Bachmann's story "Simultaneo", and appears in Raffaele Ruggiero's 2008 mystery "Il testimone di pietra". It also serves as a cinematic backdrop, prominently featured in Piero Chiambretti's film "Ogni lasciato è perso" and opening Rocco Papaleo's "Basilicata coast to coast".
Our editors' tip
Take the time to view the statue from the coastal roads before reaching the summit. This distance reveals Bruno Innocenti's deliberate optical illusion, allowing the back of the figure's head to read as a face that extends a blessing over the Tyrrhenian Sea.