Europe’s tallest statue of Virgin Mary inaugurated in small Polish village

An enormous statue of the Virgin Mary which is believed to be Europe’s tallest has been inaugurated in a small Polish village, in the presence of veteran anti-communist leader Lech Walesa.

Hundreds of people took part in the consecration of the monument, which towers 182ft over Konotopie in central Poland, the home of fewer than 150 people.

While helicopters scattered miniature red roses over the crowd, priests in white robes celebrated mass and the popular Mazowsze folk ensemble sang and danced to traditional Polish music.

The statue is taller — if less dramatically located — than the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which measures 125ft including its pedestal. The Polish statue’s height includes a crown-shaped 49ft pedestal.

It also surpasses another recent large-scale religious monument in Poland, the Christ the King statue in the western town of Swiebodzin, which was unveiled in 2010 and — complete with the mound it stands on — rises 170ft above the ground.

There is a taller statue of the Virgin Mary in the Philippines, which measures 322ft, but the new one in Poland is believed to be the largest of its kind in Europe.

Mr Walesa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership of the Polish anti-communist resistance as the head of the Solidarity trade union, and was later Polish president, had a front row seat during the inauguration ceremony.

“This is the end of my path,” the 82-year-old told the Associated Press, suggesting the causes he has long championed, including democracy and Catholic faith, are completed. “I started with the Virgin Mary and I end with the Virgin Mary.”

During his Solidarity days, he famously wore a Black Madonna pin and has often credited his faith in god with giving him the strength to fight against communism.

The vast majority of Poles identify as Catholic, and the Catholic church played a powerful role in public life after the fall of communism in 1989, benefitting from the prestige it earned through its support for the anti-communist opposition.

The country was the homeland of St John Paul II, who reigned as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. A huge statue of him — much smaller than the one of Mary — was unveiled over a decade ago in the city of Czestochowa.

The statue was commissioned by local millionaires Roman and Grazyna Karkosik, who live in a small palace a few miles from Konotopie.

Roman Karkosik, an entrepreneur whose ventures included plastic bottle manufacturing in the 1990s, amassed a fortune through investments on the Warsaw Stock Exchange to became one of Poland’s wealthiest individuals.

The couple have said the monument is an expression of their gratitude to God.

“The statue will be for all people,” Mrs Karkosik told AP. “Each of us coming to see it will think more deeply about their own lives, not only about god.”

Local authorities hope the monument – which features a viewing platform built inside the pedestal – will become a major pilgrimage site and a tourist destination.