Qualla: Cristo de la Concordia

Cristo de la Concordia: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Trujillosandra, CC BY-SA 4.0. The extra 44 centimeters were not an accident. When the designers of Cochabamba's Cristo de la Concordia planned their statue, they intended it to stand exactly 33 meters tall -- one meter for each year of Christ's life. But somewhere between blueprint and bronze, the figure gained a bit of well-coiffed hair that pushed it to 33.44 meters, safely past the height of its famous model in Rio de Janeiro. Locals will tell you, with a straight face, that the discrepancy accounts for Christ living "a little past" his 33rd year. It is the kind of detail that says everything about the city it watches over: ambitious, devout, and not above a little friendly competition.

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Image: Trujillosandra | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cristo de la Concordia: A Rivalry Cast in Concrete

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lucas from Campinas, Brazil, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Cristo de la Concordia -- Christ of Peace -- rises from the summit of San Pedro Hill on the eastern edge of Cochabamba, Bolivia's fourth-largest city. Designed by brothers Cesar and Walter Terrazas Pardo and modeled explicitly after Christ the Redeemer in Rio, the statue was ...

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Image: Lucas from Campinas, Brazil | CC BY-SA 2.0

Cristo de la Concordia: Climbing Into the Arms of Christ

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sodaliteblue, CC BY-SA 4.0. There are two ways up San Pedro Hill: a cable car or 2,000 steps. Most visitors take the cable car up and walk down, though the truly determined do it the other way around. The statue itself sits 265 meters above the city at an elevation of 2,840 meters above sea level, high enou...

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Image: Sodaliteblue | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cristo de la Concordia: The Scale of a Colossus

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazo_izquierdo_del_Cristo_Redentor,_Laguna_Alalay_y_la_Ciudad_de_Cochabamba_Bolivia.jpg: Lucas from Campinas, Brazil Panorama_de_Cochabamba_Bolivia.jpg: Lucas from Campinas, Brazil Panorama_Cochabamba_Bolivia.jpg: Patrick Furlong from Santiago, Chile derivative work: Googledance (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Numbers alone struggle to convey what 2,200 metric tons of reinforced concrete look like shaped into a human figure. The head is 4.64 meters tall and weighs 11,850 kilograms by itself. The total surface area covers 2,400 square meters -- roughly the footprint of half a football f...

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Image: Brazo_izquierdo_del_Cristo_Redentor,_Laguna_Alalay_y_la_Ciudad_de_Cochabamba_Bolivia.jpg: Lucas from Campinas, Brazil Panorama_de_Cochabamba_Bolivia.jpg: Lucas from Campinas, Brazil Panorama_Cochabamba_Bolivia.jpg: Patrick Furlong from Santiago, Chile derivative work: Googledance (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cristo de la Concordia: Cochabamba's Sentinel

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Einar Paz, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cochabamba sits in a fertile valley at the heart of Bolivia, a city of nearly 700,000 people known for its food, its markets, and its year-round spring climate. The Cristo de la Concordia has become its defining landmark, visible from nearly every corner of the city and from high...

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Image: Einar Paz | CC BY-SA 4.0