Image Number

Photographer

Date

Rights

Collection

Geographic Term

Subject Term

Personal Subjects

Physical Description

General Note

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is located on U.S. Highway 1 three miles north of Key Largo at mile marker 102.5. The park opened to the public in May 1963. This was the nation's first underwater park. John Pennekamp was a Miami newspaper editor who helped facilitate the establishment of both this park and Everglades National Park.

"Christ of the Abyss" or "Christ of the Deep" is a 9-foot bronze statue of Jesus Christ anchored to a platform in about 25 feet of water at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. The statue is a casting of the original "Il Cristo Degli Abissi" sculpted by Italian artist Guido Galletti in 1954 and placed in San Frottuoso Bay near Genoa, Italy. Egidio Cressi, an Italian industrialist and sport diver, commissioned the casting and presented it as a gift to the Underwater Society of America. U.S. Senator Spessard Holland of Florida volunteered John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park as a permanent home for the statue. On August 25, 1965, Cothon Construction Company of Islamorada lowered the statue into place. It was dedicated on June 29, 1966.