Cristo Rei do Garajau

The Cristo Rei Viewpoint, in Garajau, provides visitors with an excellent view of the bay of Funchal, the Garajau Natural Reserve, Caniço de Baixo and the Atlantic Ocean.

The majestic fourteen-metre-high statue stands on top of a hill which drops into a ravine, towards the sea. 

It is here that non catholic Christians were thrown from the cliffs as only Catholics were allowed to be buried on the island until 1770 when the British Cemetery of Funchal was established for non catholic Christians. 

The statue of Jesus Christ was built by French artists Georges Serraz and Pierre Charles Lenoir and erected on October 30, 1927. The statue was financed by a distinguished lawyer by the name of Aires d’Ornelas de Vasconcellos and his wife D.Maria de Jesus de Souza e Holstein, whose sole purpose of having the artists build the statue was to fulfill a promise.

The statue was completed four years before Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil.

Aires d’Ornelas was the last kin of the família Morgado, a prominent family from Caniço.

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