| Monument Name: | Christ of Monteagudo |
| Native Name: | Cristo de Monteagudo |
| Location: | , Murcia, Spain |
| Designer: | Nicolás Martínez Ramón |
| Height: | 14m (46feet), 34m (112feet) with its pedestal |
| Open: | 28 October 1951 |
| Coordinates: | 38.0203°N -1.098°W |
The Christ of Monteagudo is a colossal statue of Jesus located on top of the, in Murcia, Spain.
There was a previous statue of Jesus on top of the hill, sculpted by Anastasio Martínez Hernández and inaugurated on 31 October 1926.[1] It was demolished after an agreement voted by the Municipal Council in November 1936, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War.[2]
The second and current iteration of the sculpture was a work by Nicolás Martínez Ramón, son of Anastasio Martínez Hernández.[3] 14 metre high and placed on a 20 metre plinth, it stands 4 metres higher than its predecessor. It was unveiled on 28 October 1951.
Built on a public plot, in 2010 a requirement was filed by two lawyers before the Directorate-General of State Patrimony, dependent on the Ministry of Economy and Finance to ask for the removal of the monument as they considered a public space was being used for religious purposes, arguing that "that Christ is an intruder and an attempt against the religious freedom and the non-confessionalism of the State" and considering a "provocation" the existence of a reproduction of Jesus Christ on one of the landmarks better representing the splendour of the Islamic period of Murcia.[4] The requirement was eventually dismissed by the High Court of Justice of Madrid in 2015 on the basis the monument was "part of the cultural tradition of Murcia".[5]
By 2018, the monument presented a bad state of conservation, with pieces of concrete falling from the fingers of the statue and gaps in the joints of the pieces.[6]