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Christo's 'Floating Piers' artwork lets people walk across a lake in Italy

"The Floating Piers" installation by the artist Christo is allowing people to "walk on water" over a nearly 2-mile runway across a lake in Italy.
/ Source: TODAY

Walking on water isn't just for religious deities anymore.

Anyone who can make it to Lake Iseo in northern Italy in the next three weeks can now experience the feeling thanks to a spectacular art installation called "The Floating Piers."

The Floating Piers by Christo
A woman walked on the installation "The Floating Piers" by Bulgarian-born artist Christo on Lake Iseo in northern Italy.Reuters

The nearly 2-mile walkway across the lake from the mainland town of Sulzano to the islands of Monte Isola and San Paolo was originally conceived in 1970 by the Bulgarian-born artist Christo Vladimirov Yavachev, 81, and his late wife Jeanne-Claude, according to the project's website.

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Funded through the sale of Christo's artworks, "The Floating Piers" was unveiled Thursday at Lake Iseo, which is 62 miles north of Milan. It will be open to the public through July 3, weather permitting.

Christo Floating Piers in Italy
The magical walkways were created by Christo from an idea he first conceived with his late wife, Jeanne-Claude, in 1970.Reuters

It took divers anchoring together 220,000 high-density polyethylene cubes covered by 1,076,391 square feet of yellow fabric to create the "piers," which are 52 feet wide and 14 inches high.

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The walkways undulate to the movement of the water as people move across them, and volunteers are present for safety reasons in case anyone falls in the water.

The Floating Piers at Lake Iseo, Italy
"The Floating Piers" project allows members of the public to walk from the mainland across an Italian lake to a pair of islands that usually are only accessible by boat.Reuters
Christo's "The Floating Piers" at Lake Iseo, Italy
"The Floating Piers" will be open until July 3, and then all the materials will be recycled.Reuters

“Those who experience 'The Floating Piers' will feel like they are walking on water — or perhaps the back of a whale,” Christo said on the project's website. “The light and water will transform the bright yellow fabric to shades of red and gold throughout the 16 days.”

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The walkways are accessible 24 hours a day to the public and there is no charge, and tickets or reservations aren't required.

"The Floating Piers" came together in just under two years, compared to Christo's 2005 project known as "The Gates," an installation in New York City's Central Park that took 26 years to create.

'The Floating Piers' of Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Slideshow  18 photos

'The Floating Piers' of Christo and Jeanne-Claude

See photos of the conception and completion of "The Floating Piers" by artist Christo on Lake Iseo in northern Italy.

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