An enormous statue of the Virgin Mary that is believed to be Europe’s tallest was inaugurated on Saturday in a small Polish village, in the presence of legendary anti-communist leader Lech Walesa.

Axar.az reports, citing The Associated Press, that hundreds of people took part in the consecration of the monument, which towers 55.6 meters (182 feet) over Konotopie in central Poland, the home of fewer than 150 people.

While helicopters scattered miniature red roses over the crowd, priests in white robes celebrated Mass and the popular Mazowsze folk ensemble sang and danced to traditional Polish music.

The Polish statue is taller — if less dramatically located — than the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which measures some 38 meters (125 feet) including its pedestal. Its height includes a crown-shaped 15-meter (49-foot) pedestal.

It also surpasses another recent large-scale religious monument in Poland, the Christ the King statue in the western town of Swiebodzin, which was unveiled in 2010 and — complete with the mound it stands on — rises some 52 meters (170 feet) above the ground.

There is a taller statue of the Virgin Mary in the Philippines, which measures some 98 meters (322 feet). But the new one in Poland is believed to be the largest of its kind in Europe.