![]() Also displayed are a number of secular buildings including Spanish missions, German castles, South African shrines and the St. Half of the hillside features buildings and scenes from the Holy Land. ![]() Peter’s Basilica, and 120 other small structures, I am amazed at his artistry detail and the apparent love that went into their creation. Nature has crept in on the tiny buildings making them seem like they were always part of the landscape.Īs I walk past The Temple of the Fairies, Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Alamo, Montserrat, St. The four-acre park is filled with lovely flowers, English ivy and towering trees. ![]() Visitors from around the world have journeyed here to see the tiny treasures. The tiny buildings were initially in the abbey gardens, but when so many visitors wanted to see them, they were eventually moved to their present home in 1934. He used rock and concrete to construct each building and marbles, glassware, seashells, tiny ceramic tiles and other objects to decorate the facades. He began making the first replicas in about 1912 and his last, the miniature of the beautiful Lourdes Basilica Church, in 1958 when he was 80 years old. Buildings hug the grotto walls allowing guests to easily view the tiny buildings and villages. When not busy shoveling coal into the furnaces, he constructed the miniatures. After he arrived at the newly founded abbey, he spent his days praying and laboring in the powerhouse. He was considered a withdrawn, quiet man. ![]() He was not allowed to be ordained as a priest due to the rule that stated any man with a distracting disability could not be ordained a priest. Little did anyone know that he would leave the abbey such an incredible legacy.īrother Joseph was maimed in an accident that left him slightly hunched due to cervical kyphosis. From Landschutt, Bavaria-Germany, Brother Joseph headed to America to pursue monastic life in 1892. It was Brother Joseph Zoettl, a Benedictine monk, who created each building. Bernard Abbey, the only Benedictine monastery of men in the state.Īfter paying a nominal admission fee, I start my tour by walking along a wide sidewalk down into the grotto. Located about an hour north of Birmingham, the attraction is in a former quarry at St. He described miniature buildings created by a monk in the earlier half of the 20th century. Such was the case for me when I heard about Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman. Like many travel destinations, we hear about them from friends and family.
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