The outdoor cross with its airy lightness of fifty tonnes of rust-red steel not only serves as a Christian landmark, the large cross embodies the symbol of the meeting with the future that Fátima seeks.
Fátima is a major pilgrimage site of the Catholic Church with more than four million pilgrims annually.
Robert Schad is a German steel sculptor. He travelled to Fatima for the first time in the late 1970s. In 1980 he received his first scholarship for a working stay in Porto/Portugal. In 2005, he was invited to participate in the competition for a monumental cross for Fátima.
After a competitive decision, the crucifix was produced in 2007 in a large steel construction company near Porto…
…and constructed in October 2007.
With the Fátima Crucifix, Robert Schad wanted to set a global sign and create a kind of concentrate, as a result of historical reflections and art historical studies, which reflects and brings to the point the different positive and negative experiences of the individual. It should be a cross from our time into our time.