The residents of the small village of Konotopie hope the new statue will put it on the pilgrimage map, but opinions are divided about the statue, which will be officially inaugurated on the Feast of the Assumption on August 15.
The 75-year-old billionaire Roman Karkosik, who lives nearby, has paid the cost - equivalent to a quarter of a billion kronor - “as a religious gesture.”
But the money should be invested in a hospital or an orphanage, a married couple told AFP, while visitor Marek Gizinski described the statue as "monumental."
At 55 metres, the concrete-and-steel statue is the second tallest statue of the Virgin Mary in the world, after a statue in the Philippines that is almost 100 metres high.
