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The statue was designed by Heitor Silva Costa and produced by French sculptor Paul Landowski within five years.

The construction of the statue was initiated in 1922 in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of the country at that time, in honor of the 100th anniversary of Brazil's independence and was officially opened on October 12, 1931. The colossal statue, 30 m tall, stands on an 8 m high base and weighs 1,145 tons. It is only 3.75 m high per head and comes in 30 tons. The width of its arms is 30 m. Concrete was used as a construction material and soapstone (also called talc) was used as a layer on it. Today, about 1 million tourists visit the monument annually.

A replica of the statue was built on the 793 m high Pico Isabel de Torres Mountain in Puerto Plata city in the north of the Dominican Republic.

On December 1, 1999, Austrian base jumper Felix Baumgartner jumped from the right arm of the statue with a parachute. Before the jump, Baumgartner climbed the statue with a rope that he threw with an arrow.

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