Rio Grande Do SulBrazil 29° S · 51° W Verified Aug 2026
Built through local donations, Brazil’s Christ the Protector rises above Encantado with outstretched arms and a glass elevator to a heart-level valley view.
A 37.5-metre Christ stands above Encantado—taller than Rio's 30-metre figure, yet rising from a small valley town rather than a famous capital. Christ the Protector in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, rewards the climb with a glass-framed view from inside the chest, where the Taquari Valley unfolds below and a community-built story comes into focus. Visit for the scale, the mountain air, and the human drama behind those open arms.
The completed monument reaches 43.5 metres, including its 6-metre pedestal—about the height of a 14-storey building—while the arms stretch roughly 36 metres across the ridge. Official project records state that the internal glass elevator reaches the heart-level viewpoint, 34 metres above the ground, where wind presses against the glass and the valley seems to drop away.
Records show that the project began with a conversation between councilor Adroaldo Conzatti and parish priest Father João Granzotto in 2015, then became a formal community effort on March 19, 2019. The Associação Amigos de Cristo de Encantado raised private donations rather than drawing directly on municipal funds, giving the monument a distinctly local origin.
The hilltop survived the May 2024 floods that devastated much of the Vale do Taquari, and the complete religious park opened on April 6, 2025. Come early if you want the quieter version: footsteps on the Caminho dos Salmos, water striking the twelve jets of the Fonte dos Apóstolos, and the statue's face catching the first clean light.
History
According to local tradition, Encantado took its name from an Indigenous leader who vanished near the Taquari River, leaving settlers to call the waterway Arroio Encantado, or Enchanted Stream. Records also show that Morro das Antenas, the statue's ridge, carried the first electrical transmission and telecommunications relays serving the municipality in the 1930s.
The modern monument grew from the Catholic and Italian-immigrant history of the Vale do Taquari, but its method was unusually civic. Official and local records trace the idea to 2015, the founding of the Friends of Christ Association in 2019, and a private-donation campaign that turned a mayor's proposal into a public act of faith.
The turning point
Local reporting records Adroaldo Conzatti, mayor of Encantado and the project's chief political advocate, discussing the idea with Father João Granzotto in 2015. Conzatti faced mockery from critics who questioned whether a town of roughly 23,000 people should build a Christ larger than Rio's famous figure, so he made his personal and political credibility part of the gamble: the monument would be financed through private donations, not the municipal treasury.
The turning point came on March 19, 2021. Confirmed reports state that Conzatti died of COVID-19 complications at 81, exactly two years after the association was founded and only 18 days before the statue's head and arms were lifted into place; the project suddenly had to continue without the man who had given it its voice.
On April 6, 2021, reports describe heavy cranes rising from the narrow ridge as crews hoisted the roughly 40-ton head and arms onto the steel structure. Sculptor Markus Moisés Rocha Moura guided the cables from the scaffolding while masked townspeople watched through mountain mist, and applause and prayers followed when the face finally locked onto the neck column.
Yes—Christ the Protector is worth visiting for its enormous sculpture, heart-level lookout, and broad views over the Taquari Valley. In Encantado, the 43.5-metre figure stands about as high as a 14-storey building, with arms stretching 39 metres across the sky. The chapel, fountains, and community-funded origin give the site more substance than a quick monument photo.
Plan 2 to 3 hours at Christ the Protector for the monument, chapel, gardens, fountains, and heart viewpoint. A shorter visit takes about 1 to 1.5 hours, including the 300-to-500-metre walk from the entrance—roughly five to seven minutes at an easy pace. The elevator ride ends with only 5 minutes inside the heart observatory, so allow time for the queue.
Drive about 150 kilometres from Porto Alegre, usually 2 to 2.5 hours, taking BR-386 toward Lajeado and then RS-130 to Encantado. The final road up Morro das Antenas is paved, and free parking sits outside the gates. Without a car, take an intercity bus to Encantado’s bus terminal, then use a taxi or ride-hailing service for the final 4 to 5 kilometres.
Autumn and spring generally offer the most comfortable temperatures and clearest views at Christ the Protector. Summer mornings are preferable because afternoons can exceed 30°C, while winter mornings may wrap the statue in dramatic fog and hide the valley from the heart lookout. The park normally opens Tuesday through Sunday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and closes on regular Mondays.
Most visitors pay R$40 for the complex and a separate R$50 for the heart elevator, so a standard visit isn’t free. Children aged 0 to 7 enter free with identification, as do visitors with disabilities at the local ticket desk with the required documentation; Encantado residents can also enter free with proof of residence and 1 kilogram of non-perishable food. Buy complex tickets online or at the gates, but purchase heart-elevator tickets on the day at the welcome desk.
Don’t miss the Mirante no Coração, where a glass elevator rises inside the torso to a heart-shaped window about 34 metres above the ground. Walk beneath the outstretched arms to study the hand-worked folds in the concrete, then visit the glass chapel dedicated to Saint Giovanni Battista Scalabrini. The 12-jet Fountain of the Apostles and the stone Caminho dos Salmos are quieter details that reward a slower circuit.
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