Mount Cristo Rey

Mount Cristo Rey

Mt Cristo Rey is a shrine to thousands of faithful in the El Paso and Southern New Mexico area. Dedicated in 1940, the cross of Christ on top of the mountain was the vision of Fr. Lourdes Costa, a local parish priest, who in 1933 after looking out the back window of his residence in the community of Smeltertown, envisioned erecting a monument at the summit of this glorious mountain. On August 31, 1937, Father Costa met with Bishop Schuler to suggest that his good friend, world famous sculptor Urbici Soler, be commissioned to construct the monument. While Costa devoted his time to financing the project, Soler was studying the site and making models of prospective ideas. A clay model made by Soler of his concept of the project was approved on December 7, 1937. Soler left for Austin on April 1, 1938 to select almost forty tons of the finest limestone from their famous quarries. He cut and shaped the large stones himself as he prepared them for shipping. He began the trip back to El Paso in September. Upon his return, work began in earnest. The base of the monument measures 14 feet wide and ten feet high. It was made to hold six inch by four inch memorial tile plaques made of Spanish Talavera with the names of contributors and sold for $25.00 each. The base was completed on May 15, 1939. The first stone of the limestone statue was placed on May 24, 1939 by Urbici Soler. From then on, until its completion, he was on the scaffold from 4:00 AM to sunset everyday. The statue was ready in time for pilgrimage on October 29, 1939.

Creator: Lotte Kryger Bro

Area: Central / Smeltertown

Collection: Neighborhood photos

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

Madero's Headquarters near Asarco

Madero's headquarters near Asarco. Madero may be speaking to ...

Mexican Revolution Artillery

Practicing with a fieldpiece during the Mexican Revolution. ...

Mexican Revolution Artillery

This photograph may have been taken at the Rebel Camp near ...

Stacks on ASARCO Site

The photograph shows the stacks of the ASARCO smelting site from ...

San Jose del Rio Grande Church

This church was originally named San Rosalia, and was built in ...

Boundary Marker

This is probably the Boundary Marker near Smeltertown, with the ...

SmelterTown

The beginnings of ASARCO. Photograph taken from a souvenir ...

ASARCO

60-ton Converter Crane

ASARCO

60-ton hoist block

ASARCO

70-ton wooden bridge

ASARCO

300 ton press (shaft hub)

ASARCO

300 ton press, shaft hub 2

ASARCO

500 KW Crank

ASARCO

500 KW Generato

ASARCO

610' stack

ASARCO

828' stack

Asarco - El Paso, Texas

Photograph taken of a stack - upper platform -828' stack, ...

ASARCO

4160 Volt Switch

ASARCO

Air steam 400 turbine

ASARCO

Air lines manifold

ASARCO

Bag house ventilation

ASARCO

Bag house

ASARCO

Bench grinder

home.search_collection