Sanctuary of Christ the King

The Sanctuary of Christ the King (Santuário de Cristo Rei) is a Catholic monument and shrine dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ overlooking the city of Lisbon situated in Almada, in Portugal. It was inspired by the Christ the Redeemer statue of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, after the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon visited that monument. The project was inaugurated on 17 May 1959. The giant statue was erected to express gratitude because the Portuguese were spared the direct destructive effects of World War II. The construction of the Christ the King monument was approved in a Portuguese Episcopate conference, held in Fatima on 20 April 1940, as a plea to God to release Portugal from entering World War II and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the act of consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. However, the idea had originated earlier on a visit of the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 1934, soon after the inauguration of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in 1931. In 1941 the land which was used to construct the monument was acquired. In 1949 the cornerstone was finally placed on the site, and managed by the Portuguese Episcopate. Construction began in 1949 and took ten years to complete, funded and supported by Apostleship of Prayer members. Yet it was only in 1952 that the first construction started on the site; at that time the foundations of the monument were established by Empresa de Construções OPCA. The final cost of the complex was of twenty million escudos (20 059 258$40). The inauguration of the complex officially began on 17 May 1959, and continued throughout the 20th century. On the 25th anniversary of the Shrine in 1984, the Chapel of Our Lady of Peace was first inaugurated. A new plan was approved to recondition the grounds of the Shrine (under the direction of Luiz Cunha and Domingos Ávila Gomes) and also to build a Sanctuary, which included a rectory, a chapel, administration and meeting halls and exhibition galleries. When Pope Paul VI created the Diocese of Setúbal on 16 July 1975, by means of the Papal bull Studentes Nos, the Monument of Christ the King and the Seminary of Almada remained under

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