For many, it is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
The statue of Christ the Redeemer of Rio de Janeiro, located at the top of Corcovado 700 meters above the sea, is in the midst of a restoration campaign.
Degraded by heavy rains and the wear and tear of time, parts of the face and hands of the monument inaugurated in 1931, show signs of wear.
Worth four million dollars, the project is to be completed in June.
This is not the first time that bad weather has degraded the emblematic monument of Rio, made up of sculpted soapstone slabs mounted on a reinforced concrete frame.
Regularly struck by lightning, one of the thumbs of Christ in Corcovado was further damaged during a severe thunderstorm in January 2014.
Before the pandemic, the Christ of Corcovado attracted more than 600,000 people each year.
The statue, 38 meters high (including 30 for Christ and 8 for the pedestal), was designed by the French sculptor Paul Landowski and erected by the Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and classified as a historical monument since 1973.
