A monument that is often compared with the one from Rio de Janeiro as well as known as the largest statue of Jesus from Eastern Europe, but which is yet so controversial and splits the people who are visiting it in two different groups.

There is a saying which relates that neither politics nor religion should be discussed just because there are always pros and cons and people can easily wake up in a fight just because they have a different opinion than the rest.
And honestly, I totally agree with it because I am aware that we are all different and can't share the same opinions all the time.
However, even though my post is not about a church, monastery, or any other religious place, but just a statue, it still managed to stir lots of controversies and even led to something really bad. But let's start with the beginning.
The monument is not made of stone or any other material that it's usually worked with to create a statue, but iron.
This one is 22 meters height and it's known as The Heart of Jesus, making people think about the famous statue of Jesus from Rio de Janeiro, where by the way, amongst the artists there was also a Romanian craftsman that brought his contribution on creating the unforgettable monument.

Though, as much as Brazil enjoyed the monument that celebrates the independence of the country, not the same joy was shared when Christians heard of The Heart of Jesus statue being under making.

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Not for a few times I heard that Romania is amongst the countries with the most faithful people, which is 100% true. But when you take this faith too far producing someone's death, I'm wondering what religion are these people actually following? Because it's just the opposite of what your faith teaches you to do.

The statue is quite a recent project being finished in 2011 when a very faithful businessman thought about rising the monument on the highest hill of the village which is just 953 meters height but which would be the right place from where the monument could open up its arms and protect the locals from any dangers or dark thoughts.
However, while the man brought a quite substantial contribution to the whole project that cost around 200,000€ to become reality, it's the real proof that maybe sometimes is better to avoid doing good things towards people just because you might get in return too many bad words to deal with.
To make you understand better, the statue created two controversies amongst the faithful Szeklers from the area who thought that the material used to rise the monument it's rather inappropriate, as well as the halo around Jesus' head which seemed way too modern and not a serious project to come to an end.
While the orthodox rite doesn't allow being created such statues at all and the catholic one use a different kind of halo, this was only the beginning of a large wave of people that seemed quite disturbed by the new statue that was going to be seen from any part of the city.

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However, years passed and people kept talking nonsense about the statue which sooner or later made the creator of the art take his life just to get rid of all the bad sayings. Thinking that there are already 11 years since the monument was built and people are coming to see the resemblance between this one and that from Rio de Janeiro, makes me feel both angry and sad that this man didn't get to live the days when his statue brings people from all over the world and actually praise what he created.

But if this would be the attitude from the first moment it was created because it should be an honour for Romanians in general thinking that this is the largest monument with Jesus from Easter Europe and that is compared with the one from Rio de Janeiro, I'm sure this disaster wouldn't happen anymore. Not to mention about how stupid it is to have this attitude coming from those who call themselves Christians and who should spread love, not the opposite.

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Anyway, as I don't intend to turn this into a sad post, I'd like to say that the unique monument gives you the opportunity to also admire some outstanding landscapes which are always different depending on the period you are travelling there because there are some stairs inside of the monument which are taking you to the very top side of this one, namely, on the head.

Don't worry, the architecture was very well thought and there are no risks because more than half of your body will be still inside of the monument and the hole is quite narrow so you don't risk falling.

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Though, as spectacular the whole view is once you reach the monument, as hard the way to access it turns out, especially if you want to get by car because there is a quite steep forest path which becomes even more challenging during the rainy periods. Hpwever, there is also the chance to take a walk in the forest by walking no more than 20-30 minutes until you reach the monument, but keep in mind that there have been seen bears and Harghita is also known as one of the counties with the most bears in Romania.

Before you reach the forest path, you should follow the route Odorheiu Secuiesc - Praid - Sovata on the county road for 52 km until you reach Lupeni village which is also the one that shelters The Heart of Jesus statue. Though, in order to get to this one, you have to drive 4 km more until you get on the forest path that will take you all the way up to the hill from where you can enjoy lots of cool landscapes.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾

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