The Carnival celebrations in Oruro already rival Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro for color and culture, if not for size. Now the Andean mining city has erected a huge statue of the Virgin Mary that’s a bit taller than Rio’s famed Christ the Redeemer. Oruro formally dedicated the new statue earlier this month as it kicked off its Carnival celebrations. The Virgin of Socavon is almost 150 feet tall — a shade shorter than New York’s Statue of Liberty and 23 feet taller than Rio’s image of Christ. It’s built of cement, iron and fiberglass to withstand the fierce winds of the high plain. Construction of the statue cost $1.2 million and took four years.
Associated Press
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