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| 36°24′32″N93°43′31″W / 36.409000°N 93.725268°W | |
| Location | Eureka Springs, Arkansas, United States |
|---|---|
| Type | statue |
| Height | 20 metres (66 ft) |
| Completion date | 1966 |
| Dedicated to | Jesus Christ |
Christ of the Ozarks statue is a monumental sculpture of Jesus located near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, atop Magnetic Mountain. It was erected in 1966 as a "Sacred Project" by populist and white supremacist Gerald L. K. Smith. The statue stands 65.5 feet (20.0 meters) high.
During the Great Depression, Gerald L. K. Smith served as an organizer for Huey P. Long's Share Our Wealth movement and led it briefly following Long's assassination in 1935. After many years of highly controversial, religiously charged activism that was primarily characterized by Holocaust denial, virulent racism, antisemitism, and pro-Nazi sympathies, [1] Smith retired to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he bought and renovated an old mansion. On other parts of the estate property, he planned a religious theme park, which he called "Sacred Projects". He commissioned the centerpiece, a gigantic statue of Jesus, completed in 1966. It is called Christ of the Ozarks. [2]
He also completed a 4,100-seat amphitheater. This is the site of seasonal annual outdoor performances of The Great Passion Play . It is performed 3 nights a week from the last week of May through the end of October. [3]
The statue was primarily the work of Emmet Sullivan, who also worked on nearby Dinosaur World. He had assisted in the work at Mount Rushmore. The statue is modernistic and minimalistic; there is little facial detail or expression, and the lines and forms are generally simplified.[ citation needed ] The arms are outstretched straight, sixty five feet from the tip of one finger to another, suggesting the Crucifixion; however the cross is not depicted.
It sits on 320 tons of concrete and was designed to withstand winds of 500 miles an hour. The statue, which was completely built by hand out of steel and mortar, is also reinforced in a way to withstand the force of a passing tornado. [4]
It has been nicknamed "Gumby Jesus" and "Our Milk Carton with Arms" by critics. [5] [6]
The Christ of the Ozarks is featured briefly in the 2005 movie Elizabethtown and in the 1988 movie Pass the Ammo . It is also featured during the intro theme to True Detective , Season 3, which was filmed in the Ozarks region of Arkansas. It is featured in a 2018 documentary The Gospel of Eureka.[ third-party source needed ] The art collective Indecline hung a banner on it in July 2021 that said "God Bless Abortions"; the banner was removed. [7] It was also featured on The Daily Show in 2022 while discussing the topic of LGBT rights in Arkansas. [8] [ third-party source needed ]
Palm Sunday is the Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Its name originates from the palm branches waved by the crowd to greet and honor Jesus Christ as he entered the city. Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy Week; in Western Christianity, this is the beginning of the last week of the solemn season of Lent, preceding Eastertide, while in Eastern Christianity, Holy Week commences after the conclusion of Great Lent.
Eureka Springs is a city in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States, and one of two county seats for the county. It is located in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas, near the border with Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 2,166.
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is predominantly used in the Catholic Church, followed by high church Anglicans, and some Western Rite Orthodox. In the Latin Church, the liturgical Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated the third Friday after Pentecost. The 12 promises of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus are also popular.
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant portion of northern Arkansas and most of the southern half of Missouri, extending from Interstate 40 in central Arkansas to Interstate 70 in central Missouri.
Christ the Redeemer is an Art Deco statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, created by French-Polish sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with French engineer Albert Caquot. Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida sculpted the face. Constructed between 1922 and 1931, the statue is 30 metres (98 ft) high, excluding its 8-metre (26 ft) pedestal. The arms stretch 28 metres (92 ft) wide. It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone. Christ the Redeemer differs considerably from its original design, as the initial plan was a large Christ with a globe in one hand and a cross in the other. Although the project organizers originally accepted the design, it later changed to the statue of today, with the arms spread out wide.
Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith was an American clergyman, politician and organizer known for his populist and far-right demagoguery. He began his career as a leader of the populist Share Our Wealth movement during the Great Depression. After the death of Huey Long he shifted away from advocating wealth redistribution towards anti-communism and later anti-semitism, becoming known for far-right causes such as the Christian Nationalist Crusade, which he founded in 1942. He founded the America First Party in 1943 and was its 1944 presidential candidate, winning fewer than 1,800 votes. He was a preeminent antisemite and a white supremacist.
In Catholic tradition, the Five Holy Wounds, also known as the Five Sacred Wounds or the Five Precious Wounds, are the five piercing wounds that Jesus Christ suffered during his crucifixion. The wounds have been the focus of particular devotions, especially in the late Middle Ages, and have often been reflected in church music and art.
The Passionists, officially named the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, abbreviated CP, are a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men, founded by Paul of the Cross in 1720, with a special emphasis on and devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ. A known symbol of the congregation is the labeled emblem of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, surmounted by a cross. This symbol is often sewn into the attire of its congregants.
Emmet Sullivan, was an American sculptor. He was born in Powder River, Montana, and claimed to have worked on Mount Rushmore. He created the five dinosaurs in Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, South Dakota in 1934, his first large-scale project. His other dinosaur creations were the Apatosaurus at Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota in the late 1960s, and the many dinosaurs of Dinosaur World in Beaver, Arkansas. In 1966 Sullivan sculpted the 20 meter tall Christ of the Ozarks statue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Cristo Rey is a statue on top of Cerro del Cubilete,, a 200 metres (660 ft) mountain in Silao Municipality in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Dinosaur World, earlier known as John Agar's Land of Kong and Farwell's Dinosaur Park, was a tourist attraction in Beaver, Arkansas. It was a theme park covering 65 acres (260,000 m2), which contained a hundred life-size sculptures of dinosaurs, cavemen, and other prehistoric creatures as well as the world's largest Noah's Ark Mural painted by local artist Will Johnson. The park closed in 2005. At one time it was the largest dinosaur park in the world.
St Monica's Catholic Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Church in the Palmers Green area of north London. The parish church is situated at the junction of Stonard Road and Green Lanes in the London Borough of Enfield.
A calvary is a type of monumental public Christian cross, sometimes encased in an open shrine. Usually a calvary has three crosses, that of Jesus Christ and those of impenitent thief and penitent thief.
Christ of the Sacred Heart is a 75-foot-tall (23 m) statue of Jesus displaying his Sacred Heart located above the town of El Morro, six miles south of the city of Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. The statue is situated directly across the highway from the coastal Las Rocas Resort and Spa, from which an excellent view of the statue can be had.
The Cristo Rei of Dili statue is a 27.0-metre-high (88.6 ft) colossal statue of Jesus Christ situated atop a globe at Cape Fatucama in Dili, East Timor. It is one of East Timor's main tourist attractions.
Bridgeford House is a historic building in Eureka Springs, Arkansas that now is a five-room bed and breakfast.
The Cristo del Otero is a large sculpture and symbol of the city of Palencia in Spain, located on a knoll (otero) on the outskirts of the city. Another name, much less popular, is the Monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The sculpture was designed by Victorio Macho, and it is also the location of his tomb.
Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point is an annual summer opera festival and opera training program in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Founded in 1950 by Henry Hobart and Gertrude Stockard, the festival serves as a training ground for young opera professionals. Several alumni of the festival have gone on to have prominent performing careers, including Mark Delavan, Stephen Dickson, Tom Fox, Carroll Freeman, Beverly Hoch, Hei-Kyung Hong, Sherman Ray Jacobs, William Johns, Patricia Johnson, Gwendolyn Jones, Marquita Lister, Chris Merritt, Leona Mitchell, Brian Montgomery, Latonia Moore, Louis Otey, Kay Paschal, Cyndia Sieden, Richard Vernon, and Jennifer Zetlan.
E. Spencer Schubert is an American artist and sculptor known for his busts and monumental sculpture. He has created monuments for a variety of cities, universities and private collections including three monumental sculptures of town founders in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the Sacred Heart of Jesus sculpture for Benedictine College and a sculpture of football coach Bill Snyder for Kansas State University.