The bronze lying on the seabed of the San Fruttuoso bay was cast from melted medals, ship fittings, church bells and even propellers from American submarines given by the U.S. Navy. The idea came from Duilio Marcante, a diving instructor: in 1947 his diving companion Dario Gonzatti had died in these waters, and Marcante set his mind on placing a Christ on the bottom for him. He brought in the shipowner Giacomino Costa, the figure was modelled by Guido Galletti and cast at the Battaglia art foundry, and on 29 August 1954 the Italian Navy lowered it into the sea between Camogli and Portofino.
What to see
The statue stands a little over two metres tall, arms open and hands raised towards the sky as a sign of peace. The base rests on the seabed at 14.4 metres; the Christ is fixed to it at 12.2 metres and the hands reach ten metres below the surface, so the shape can be made out even from just under the water. A plaque on the base remembers Marcante.
In 2003 the statue was lifted out of the water to halt the corrosion, clear the encrustations and reattach a hand, torn off by an anchor and recovered by the diver Enea Marrone. It went back down on 17 July 2004, on a new base and at a shallower depth than before. Other casts from the same mould exist, at Key Largo in Florida and on the quayside of St. George's in Grenada, while a copy stands in the abbey church of San Fruttuoso, on dry land.
Visiting
You can only reach it by diving, and this is inside the Portofino marine protected area: a guide on the Liguria regional register is required, so you go down with a dive centre. The water is shallow and the dive counts as an easy one, which is why it is among the most frequented in Italy; boats leave from Camogli, Santa Margherita and Portofino. Anyone not diving gets to San Fruttuoso by ferry or on foot along the headland paths, and finds the copy inside the church.
Our editors' tip
Pick a sunny day with a flat sea: what makes those few minutes on the bottom worth remembering is the light coming down from above, and under a grey sky the darkened bronze blends into the sand. If you have no certification, do not give up on it: local centres run guided trial dives in shallow water, and the abbey with its copy of the statue is worth the boat trip anyway.