Poland unveils giant statue of Pope John Paul II

Czestochowa (Poland), 13 April 2013: Poland unveiled on Saturday a giant statue of Pope John Paul II, said to be the tallest of the former pontiff anywhere in the world.

Weighing five tonnes, the 13.8m (45-ft) white fiberglass statue shows the pope standing with outstretched arms. It stands on a hill above the city of Czestochowa in southern Poland, reported BBC on Saturday.

The city is home to the country's most important pilgrimage site, the Jasna Gora monastery, and its icon of the Black Madonna. A choir, an archbishop and an actor read from selected texts written by the Polish pope, took part in Saturday's unveiling ceremony.

Constructed around a steel framework, the statue has been built by a company that manufactures fiberglass statues such as ones of dinosaurs you see in theme parks, said the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw.

The man funding the project, Leszek Lyson, said he wanted to give thanks to John Paul II for the life of his son, whom Lyson saved from drowning during a family holiday in Croatia three years ago.

Poland is one of the most Roman Catholic countries in Europe but the statue has not won universal acclaim, added BBC correspondent. A protest campaign has been launched on the social networking site Facebook because the pope is facing away from the city. And Czestochowa's architects' association said the fiberglass structure lacks quality.

Born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, the 58-year-old Archbishop of Krakow's election as pope in 1978 stunned the Catholic world.

The first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years, he went on to become one of the world's most familiar faces in the world, visiting more than 120 countries in a 27-year pontificate that earned him a reputation as an international fighter for freedom.

He died aged 84 in 2005 after a long illness. He was beatified - the penultimate step towards sainthood - in 2011.

Source: BBC