Christ the Redeemer

This guide to Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro opens with a French priest's 1903 poem imagining a giant statue on this peak, decades before construction began in 1926, funded by public donations from across the city. It follows master builder Heitor Levy, who lived on the barely fifteen-meter summit for five straight years overseeing the work. One day the scaffolding gave way beneath him, sending him toward a drop of hundreds of feet.