With its grain fields, meadows and lake, the countryside around the tiny village of Konotopie in central Poland is idyllic. Now there is a monumental statue of the Virgin Mary towering above all this.
Home to just 120 residents and situated about 160 kilometers (99 miles) northwest of the capital, Warsaw, the previously little-known village of Konotopie has been in the headlines for weeks now as a result of the massive statue.
The snow-white structure, which is visible for miles around, is more than 55 meters (180 feet) tall. The statue itself is 40.6 meters high and stands on a 15-meter-high pedestal shaped like a crown that is intended to serve as a viewing platform.
The figure dwarfs Rio de Janeiro’s famous statue of Christ the Redeemer, which reaches a total height of 38 meters including its base.
‘Pile of concrete’ orย ‘fantastic achievement?’
The statue will be officially inaugurated on Saturday, August 15, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, a major holy day in the Catholic calendar.
Although final construction work is still underway and the site remains fenced off and guarded, thousands of people โ both pilgrims and sightseers โ have been flocking to see it for months.
Opinionย about the project isย divided.
“It’s a nightmare,” one critic of the statue told the weekly magazine Newsweek, “a complete waste. Instead of investing that money in useful projects, they financed a giant pile of concrete.”
“This Mary is absolutely beautiful. My utmost respect. A fantastic achievement,” said one devout woman visiting the site, according to the right-wing conservative weekly Sieci.
Madonna statue financed by Poland’s Warren Buffett
The benefactor behind the statue, 75-year-old Roman Karkosik, hails from a nearby village and is one of Poland’s wealthiest individuals.
Nearly 40 years ago, when the shortage economy of socialism gave way to free-market capitalism after the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, Karkosik was a young graduate from technical high school.
He started out as a bartender, but moved on to buying and selling scrap metal, producing soft drinks and later became the first entrepreneur in Poland to manufacture plastic bottles.
Karkosik made a name for himself on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Some journalists have compared his role in Poland to Warren Buffett’s influence on Wall Street.
His fortune is estimated at roughly โฌ442 million ($511 million), and he ranks 44th on Wprost magazine’s list of Poland’s richest people. He lives in an 18th-century manor in the town of Kikol, just two kilometers from Konotopie.
A ‘gesture of gratitude’
Karkosik and his wife, Grazyna, avoid both public appearances and contact with the media.
The cost of the statue remains a closely guarded secret. Media reports speculate that the project may have cost as much as โฌ23 million.
The Karkosiks have described the Marian statue as a “gesture of gratitude.”
According to media reports, the devout businessman wanted to thank the Virgin Mary for his recovery from a serious illness. His two brothers, who were also successful businessmen, both died prematurely after illnesses.
This is not the first time Karkosik has provided money for a religious structure. Back in 2011, he funded the construction of a church at a nearby pilgrimage site.
Artist feared seeing the finished statue
“I was afraid to come to Konotopie to see what had become of my design in reality,” sculptor Adam Jakub Matejkowski told Polish media. Worried that the hands and face of the Virgin Mary might appear distorted, Matejkowski only visited the site in July.
“I opened my eyes and was stunned. The Mother of God is opening her arms to embrace us,” he said with satisfaction. “That was exactly my intention: for the figure to have a human character, to come toward us.”
Matejkowski says the statue has the facial expression of his 11-year-old daughter and the delicate facial features of his wife.
Polish region hopes for economic boost
Konotopie is situated in one of Poland’s economically weak regions. There are no major industrial employers here, and jobs are scarce.
Local leaders hope the Marian statue will stimulate economic growth.
“The monument is not only a spiritual landmark but also a strategic asset for the region. We expect it to attract more investors and tourists, which will benefit the local economy,” Krzysztof Kowalewski of the authorities in the nearby town of Kikol told Polish media.
Mayor Renata Golebiewska has said that revenues at local restaurants and bars have already broken local records.
Not the first statue of its kind in Poland
Poland is well known for its monumental Christian structures.
Following Poland’s transition to democracy in 1989, a massive basilica was built in the village of Lichen in central Poland, overshadowing even the cathedrals of Paris and Cologne in scale.
The basilica is 138 meters (453 feet) long, 77 meters wide, and features a dome with a diameter of 35 meters. It can accommodate 20,000 worshippers.
Since 2010, Poland has also been home to the world’s tallest statue of Jesus. Located in Swiebodzin near the German border, the 36-meter-high statue stands on a 17-meter-high mound.
Rising secularization
Whether all these gigantic monuments can stop the ongoing secularization of Polish society, however, remains highly questionable.
Although Poland is still one of the most Catholic countries in Europe, public trust in the Church continues to decline.
For centuries, the Catholic faith was a key part of Polish identity.
In the 19th century, when the territory that now makes up Poland was not an independent state and was divided up among foreign powers, Catholicism played a major role in the resistance to Protestant Prussia and Orthodox Russia.
After World War II, despite ideological differences, the anti-communist opposition and the Catholic Church in Poland worked together against the communist dictatorship.
During this period, churches became refuges for persecuted dissidents, and several priests were murdered by the secret police.
Pope John Paul II, himself Polish, also played a significant role in the struggle against the regime.
Catholicism in modern-day Poland
Since Poland’s transition to democracy in 1989, however, the Catholic Church has experienced a crisis similar to that seen across Europe.
According to a September 2025 survey conducted by the Polish polling institute IBRIS, only 35% of Poles still trust the Church, down from 58% in 2016. Distrust rose from 24% to 47% over the same period.
In 2026, the annual number of priests ordained in Poland fell below 200 for the first time since 2000. Church attendance has also been steadily declining, especially among young people.
Even a gigantic Madonna is unlikely to reverse that trend.
This article was originally published in German.