The world’s largest Christ statue will rise in Armenia to boost religious tourism

In an increasingly secularized world, Armenia is building the tallest statue of Jesus in the world. Standing at 101 meters high, this monumental work will be more than double the size of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro (38 meters) and nearly ten meters taller than the Statue of Liberty. The enormous statue, whose design and construction are a private initiative of Gagik Tsarukyan, one of the wealthiest men in the country, will stand on Mount Hatis, an extinct volcano 2,528 meters high in the Kotayk province, about twenty kilometers from the capital, Yerevan.

The figure of Jesus is not a random choice. Approximately 95% of Armenians belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the country is considered the first nation in the world to have adopted Christianity as a state religion, in 301 AD. The project thus fits into a consolidated identity narrative while simultaneously helping to strengthen the country’s international visibility.

The Christ of Yerevan even has a dedicated website, jesuschristarmenia.com, which states that the project is “based on the principles of national solidarity, unity, and tourism development, to give new impetus to the economy and present Armenia to the world in a new light.”

To arrive at the final design, Tsarukyan’s foundation launched an open call that drew responses from more than 300 artists from Armenia and Artsakh (the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as Russia, the United States, Germany, France, Syria, and Lebanon.

The winning entry was by Armenian sculptor Armen Samvelyan. His Christ will be built of stainless steel, symbolizing the durability of faith. In addition to the statue, the complex will include a museum dedicated to the figure of Christ, a cable car, shops, dining options, and accommodation facilities.

The promoter of the initiative is Gagik Tsarukyan, one of Armenia’s richest men, president of the National Olympic Committee since 2004, and leader of the opposition party Prosperous Armenia, which won 4% of the vote in the last elections. Tsarukyan had already acquired 146 hectares of land on the mountain in 2008 in anticipation of the project. The massive complex, as well as its patron, have been at the center of various controversies in the country.

Starting with the Armenian Church itself which, upon the announcement of the work in 2022, emphasized that national sacred art has no tradition of monumental sculptures, implicitly criticizing the initiative.

Welcomed favorably by the government in 2022 as a potential driver for tourism, the project quickly turned into a national case. The groundbreaking ceremony, held on Mount Hatis in July 2022, reportedly damaged parts of an ancient fortress on the site, sparking protests and controversy. Subsequently, in January 2025, Culture Minister Zhanna Andreasian announced that the project could not proceed on the exact spot where the fortress stood.

Yet it took very little to adjust course: the construction site for the base was moved a few hundred meters and is now ready to reopen. The completion of the work is scheduled, at least for the time being, for 2027. Meanwhile, the immense body of Christ, divided into three large blocks, lies in the village of Zovuni, towering over residents’ houses, waiting to be airlifted by helicopter and assembled on the base currently under construction.