World’s largest stations of the cross in Rome

(12-03-2011) Sunday March 13^th, Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, will inaugurate the world’s largest stations of the cross that have been placed along the Via della Conciliazione in Rome. Sculpted from 22,000 pounds of bronze, the life-size stations include 49 statues and 11 crosses. Pope Benedict blessed the first station on March 1. On April 29, the stations will be moved to the city of Coquimbo, Chile, for which they were commissioned, by the Cross foundation of the third millennium, formed after Pope John Paul II’s 1987 visit to Chile, to reap the fruits of the Papal encounter. The Italian sculptors, Pasquale Nava and Giuseppe Allamprese had been working on the project since 2002. the sculptures were cast and modelled in the vast atelier of Domus Dei, owned by the Congregation of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master.