Somewhere deep in the waters of Riviera di Levante near Portofino rests an extraordinary bronze sculpture ‘Il Cristo degli Abissi’.
The 2,5 m high sculpture of Christ with head and hands rising in the pose offering peace protects people of the sea: sailors, fishermen and divers.
It has been placed near the spot where in August 1947 Dario Gonzatti lost his life while scuba diving in the gulf.
His diving friend Duilio Marcante after underwater meditations developed the idea of building of an underwater statue of Christ. The metal collected thanks to various contributions of ship debris, US Navy ship propellers, some Olympic medals etc, has been delivered tu the studio of sculptor Guido Galletti,
and finally by the end of August 1954 the finished sculpture has been sumberged about 17 metres below the water surface with the help of Italian Navy.
At the bottom of the sculpture there is detached a symbolic medalion with the insciption sent by the Pope Pius XII.
Within 50 years more than 2 million of divers from all over the world prayed there, and every year at the end of July an underwater procession dives to put the wrench on the head of Chist,
with companion sound of the bells from the church of San Fruttuoso.The ceremony which ends with the prayer in the church is in custody of divers club ‘Centro Subacqueo Mediterraneo’ from Genova.
There are two more copies casted from the same molds:
second placed in 1961 off the coast of St George in the Caribbean,
and third in 1965 in the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park,Key Largo, Florida [photo by vgm8383]
Location:
the statue of Christ of the Abyss is placed in the bay near the church of San Fruttuoso between Camogli and Portofino, and can be reached by frequent ferries from both locations.
The ferry from Portofino to San Fruttuoso takes about 20 min.
Outside of the church, which is worth visiting itself, there is also the copy of the sculpture, for visitors who are not going to dive into the bay.
