ARCHIVED - Alicante City going for Guinness Book Of Records with record-breaking nativity scene

The city may have been restricted in the amount of festive activities this year due to covid, but it’s planning to build the biggest belén in the world instead!

Work is well underway in building what Alicante City Council hopes will be the biggest belén in the world this festive season, the monumental nativity scene under construction projecting 18 metres into the sky once the installation is complete.

The town hall plans to inaugurate its monster “Sagrada Familia” on Tuesday, December 1st
in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Alicante, accompanied by a show of lights that will change color after dark.

Artist, José María García, “Pachi”, has been working flat-out with a team of five people, to get the structure in place before the weather deteriorates; although the pieces are waterproof, it’s not much fun building giant sculptures in the pouring rain which is forecast to arrive on Friday.

San José reached 12 meters in height by Wednesday afternoon, the 11 metre high Virgin Mary is due to go in on Thursday a 3.5 metre high baby Jesus in the cradle will probably be fitted into position on Saturday.
The town hall hopes that the giant Nativity scene, together with the lights and the Christmas carols, will become a Christmas attraction for Alicante, pulling in the shoppers to support local businesses, who have been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.

An architect has already made the first measurements of the monumental nativity scene to certify that it is the tallest in the world. Before its inauguration, a judge from the Guinness Book of Records will make the official measurement and issue the certificate on that day if everything is correct.
According to the Department of Festivities, a person 1.70 meters in height will only reach the height of the ankle of San José, who will eventually be 18 meters in height.

The current record - officially named "Largest nativity scene figurines" - has been held by Mexico since 1999. In this case, the measurements of María and José were 5.2 meters respectively and a diameter of 3.4 meters, with the baby Jesus, measuring 1.25 meters high, 1.23 wide and 1.9 long.

The internal structure of the Monumental Nativity Scene is made of iron tube 50 mm x 50 mm x 1.5 mm, joined, by means of gas welding, to avoid imperfections in the joints and to give a longer duration to the structure which will be dismantled on 7th January.