A resident of Truskavets, Igor Kisak, installs at his own expense a 12-meter concrete statue of Jesus Christ at the highest point of the city, which, according to plans, will be a copy of “Christ the Savior” in the Brazilian Rio de Janeiro. As ZAXID.NET has reported to the project initiator, all installation work has already been completed.
A resident of Truskavets, Igor Kisak, installs at his own expense a 12-meter concrete statue of Jesus Christ at the highest point of the city, which, according to plans, will be a copy of “Christ the Savior” in the Brazilian Rio de Janeiro. As ZAXID.NET has reported to the project initiator, all installation work has already been completed.
“I have cherished the idea of installing a statue of Jesus Christ in Truskavets from my early childhood. I think it will unite all Christians and bring us peace. Just today we have completed the casting of the sculpture in concrete. Only finishing works remain,” Igor Kisak told ZAXID.NET on October 5.
Igor Kisak refused to specify the cost of this project. “If I donate money for the church, then I do it necessarily anonymously, so that I no one could announce it. I also do not want to disclose how much I have spent on this business,” he said.
The statue is set on the mountain of Goshiv, which is the highest point of the city. The height of the pedestal is 3 m, the height of the sculpture is 9 m.
The 12-meter-long statue of Jesus in Truskavets is in fact a copy of the famous “Christ the Savior” in Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian Christ, about 40 meters tall, is also installed on the hill within the city.
According to the Truskavets-online edition, the commission of the local branch of the State Architectural Control Board made attempts to inspect the construction. The architects had to check whether construction norms had been violated during the construction of the statue, which could lead to the destruction of the mountain of Goshiv. However, Igor Kisak did not allow the representatives of DABI to the construction site, because of which he was fined 50 thousand UAH.
Igor Kisak has already appealed against this fine with a local court. “If the people who called themselves the commission of DABI had all the required documents, I would not oppose them. They did not have any certificates or any directions for checking this construction, so I prevented their access legally. And I will prove it in court,” Igor Kisak added.
ZAXID.NET failed to find out the reaction of the official Christian churches to the initiative of Igor Kisak, but in 2014, “Truskavetsky Visnyk” wrote that local priests fully endorsed the initiative to establish such a statue in Truskavets.
According to local media, Igor Kisak is an entrepreneur, an active participant in the Revolution of Dignity and founder of “Dovira” NGO. In the local elections of 2015, he was running for the position of mayor of Truskavets as a self-nominee.
It should be noted that the 120-centimeter statue of Jesus Christ was installed in August this year at the highest point of Lviv region - mountain Picuy. In 2013, Lviv also attempted to build a giant statue of Jesus Christ on Vysoky Zamok, but the organization "Christian Ukraine" did not proceed further with this idea except appealing to Lviv Region State Administration.