In a muddy village car park in central Poland, faith is being cast on a colossal scale: a billionaire-funded Virgin Mary statue so tall that residents of Konotopie believe it could transform their quiet community into a new stop for pilgrims.
Rising 55m into the sky, the concrete-and-steel figure is Europe’s tallest Marian statue and the second tallest in the world, surpassed only by the 98.15m Mother of All Asia monument in the Philippines.
The Konotopie statue is due to officially open with a blessing ceremony on Assumption Day, 15 August, the Catholic feast dedicated to the Virgin Mary. For now, the site remains unfinished, with concrete blocks and construction debris strewn across a muddy parking area.
Still, in a country where Catholicism remains woven deeply into public life, visitors are already arriving — some drawn by devotion, others by the sheer spectacle of it.
Local media estimate the cost of the Konotopie Virgin Mary at 100 million zlotys (€22.85 million).
The bill is being covered by Roman Karkosik, a 75-year-old billionaire who is frequently ranked among Poland’s wealthiest business figures.
For many believers, the price tag is beside the point.
“People come here … in search of faith,” visitor Marek Gizinski told AFP, describing the statue as “something monumental”.
“And just like with any miracle… you just can’t forget about it, because it’s simply impossible to forget,” he added, looking up at the towering Virgin.
Work on the Konotopie statue began in March 2025
Others in the area are more uneasy, arguing that another vast religious monument is not the most meaningful expression of Catholic faith in a country already dotted with sacred memorials, including many dedicated to Polish Pope John Paul II.
Poland’s best-known Marian pilgrimage destination remains the “Black Madonna” painting in Czestochowa, in the country’s south, which draws between 3.5 and five million pilgrims each year.
Instead of building a statue of the Virgin Mary, the money “should be invested in a hospital or orphanage,” said a married couple from Sierpce, around 30km from the site.
Construction in Konotopie began in March 2025, reportedly as a religious gesture by Karkosik and his wife.
“Last Sunday he visited the construction site from the backseat of his Maybach”, a security guard at the site told AFP.
Karkosik, the founder and principal shareholder of the industrial group Boryszew, lives nearby in the small town of Kikol, where he occupies a restored 18th-century palace opposite the parish church.
Local officials see the statue not only as an act of faith but as a possible engine for economic revival.
“I have not heard any negative opinions … everyone is rather satisfied,” said Renata Golebiewska, the mayor of Kikol.
She said she hopes the investment will “be a chance for (the area) to grow, and create new jobs”.
In 2024, Kikol recorded municipal tax revenue of just 1,117 zlotys (€259) per person, according to finance ministry data, placing it among the poorest municipalities in the region.
Along the outside wall of Kikol’s parish church, a bronze figurine offers a quieter echo of the much larger and flashier figure standing just one kilometre away.
The scale model, created by sculptor Adam Matejowski, was installed at the site in 2024 as a preview of the giant monument to come.
The Catholic church has long been central to Poland’s national identity, and the Virgin Mary is venerated as the country’s patron and protector, even as Poland experiences one of the world’s fastest rates of secularisation.
In the 2021 census, 71% of Poland’s population identified as Roman Catholic, a sharp fall from 88 percent a decade earlier.
“We hope this place will bear the fruits of a deeper return to faith, or at least help people deepen their faith,” said parish priest Marek Mrowczynski.
But doubts remain over whether grand monuments can answer a deeper spiritual restlessness.
“Right now, in 90% of cases, everyone’s thinking about what they’re going to get out of it, how much they’ll get out of it, what they can claw out of it for themselves,” said Wanda, who travelled from the city of Plock with two friends to see the statue.
