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thehefnerWhen Mom found out that henchgirl and I were going to be driving through Iowa on our way Northwest, she asked, "Are you going to show her the grotto?"
I actually hadn't considered it, but once Mom said the words, I knew it was a must. Henchgirl asked what the grotto was, and I honestly tried to describe it for a minute there before giving up and telling her to just wait and see for herself. It just has to be seen to be believed.
Truth be told, my own memories of the place are fuzzy. My brother took me there back around 1998 on my first-ever road trip, bound for Seattle (where I am now, having more or less followed that very same route; funny, that). That made description even harder, so I just held my tongue as we made our way West, the day turning quickly into night.
It looked like we would have to find a place to hunker down nearby, since surely it would be closed at this point. It was 9:30pm, after all. But still, I thought, it couldn't hurt to check their times. So I fired up ol' Mother Box and discovered that while the grotto's personnel were off and thus there were no tours or anything, the site itself was--in fact--open 24 hours! They even kept it lit until 10:30!
According to my GPS, we were an hour and five minutes away. Just enough time to miss it. That is, if I didn't gun it. Which I did.
And thus it was, at 10:05pm, that henchgirl and I arrived in West Bend, Iowa, at the Grotto of the Redemption.
Via Wikipedia's entry on the Grotto: Father Paul Dobberstein was a German immigrant ordained in 1897.[7] He became critically ill with pneumonia and promised to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary if she interceded for him.[8][9] After his recovery, he began stockpiling rocks and precious stones.[10] Construction of the Grotto began in 1912[10][11] and continued year round for 42 years.
Father Dobberstein used the knowledge and skills gained during construction of his first grotto honoring Our Lady of Lourdes, while training at St. Francis Seminary in St. Francis, Wisconsin. His method was to set fancy rocks and gems into concrete. In 1946, Father Louis Greving began helping Dobberstein with the construction.[11] The Grotto covered an area the size of a city block when Dobberstein died in 1954. Matt Szerensce helped work on the Grotto until his retirement in 1959.[2][12] Construction continues to this day and has been maintained by Deacon Gerald Streit since 1994.
Father Dobberstein's works inspired Mathias Wernerus (who also attended St. Francis Seminary) to build the Dickeyville Grotto in Dickeyville, Wisconsin in 1930,[3][13][1] thus starting the grotto building movement in America.[14][3]
It's funny... if we'd gone there during the day, with the tour guides and all the other gawking "pilgrims," the experience would have been very different, I'm sure. Henchgirl and I have our own private and... complex feelings toward religion, and my own mother disparagingly described Dobberstein as a man "possessed" to put all this together. Maybe during the day, this would all have seemed like an epic kitsch shrine, something to snark over and then drive away before too long.
But seeing it at night, with no one else to disturb our thoughts... well, it was a profound experience for reasons I still have a hard time putting into words. There's just something about seeing the work borne out of one man's faith, something so crazy and ambitious brought to life... I dunno. Words fail us both.
So here, hopefully the photos will do the speaking for us, even though they don't quite do the experience justice.
At this point, the lights went out. But we didn't leave the grotto immediately. I dug out my old camping lantern and we went through it all once more, as if spelunking in the middle of Iowa. Just the two of us.
I actually hadn't considered it, but once Mom said the words, I knew it was a must. Henchgirl asked what the grotto was, and I honestly tried to describe it for a minute there before giving up and telling her to just wait and see for herself. It just has to be seen to be believed.
Truth be told, my own memories of the place are fuzzy. My brother took me there back around 1998 on my first-ever road trip, bound for Seattle (where I am now, having more or less followed that very same route; funny, that). That made description even harder, so I just held my tongue as we made our way West, the day turning quickly into night.
It looked like we would have to find a place to hunker down nearby, since surely it would be closed at this point. It was 9:30pm, after all. But still, I thought, it couldn't hurt to check their times. So I fired up ol' Mother Box and discovered that while the grotto's personnel were off and thus there were no tours or anything, the site itself was--in fact--open 24 hours! They even kept it lit until 10:30!
According to my GPS, we were an hour and five minutes away. Just enough time to miss it. That is, if I didn't gun it. Which I did.
And thus it was, at 10:05pm, that henchgirl and I arrived in West Bend, Iowa, at the Grotto of the Redemption.
Via Wikipedia's entry on the Grotto: Father Paul Dobberstein was a German immigrant ordained in 1897.[7] He became critically ill with pneumonia and promised to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary if she interceded for him.[8][9] After his recovery, he began stockpiling rocks and precious stones.[10] Construction of the Grotto began in 1912[10][11] and continued year round for 42 years.
Father Dobberstein used the knowledge and skills gained during construction of his first grotto honoring Our Lady of Lourdes, while training at St. Francis Seminary in St. Francis, Wisconsin. His method was to set fancy rocks and gems into concrete. In 1946, Father Louis Greving began helping Dobberstein with the construction.[11] The Grotto covered an area the size of a city block when Dobberstein died in 1954. Matt Szerensce helped work on the Grotto until his retirement in 1959.[2][12] Construction continues to this day and has been maintained by Deacon Gerald Streit since 1994.
Father Dobberstein's works inspired Mathias Wernerus (who also attended St. Francis Seminary) to build the Dickeyville Grotto in Dickeyville, Wisconsin in 1930,[3][13][1] thus starting the grotto building movement in America.[14][3]
It's funny... if we'd gone there during the day, with the tour guides and all the other gawking "pilgrims," the experience would have been very different, I'm sure. Henchgirl and I have our own private and... complex feelings toward religion, and my own mother disparagingly described Dobberstein as a man "possessed" to put all this together. Maybe during the day, this would all have seemed like an epic kitsch shrine, something to snark over and then drive away before too long.
But seeing it at night, with no one else to disturb our thoughts... well, it was a profound experience for reasons I still have a hard time putting into words. There's just something about seeing the work borne out of one man's faith, something so crazy and ambitious brought to life... I dunno. Words fail us both.
So here, hopefully the photos will do the speaking for us, even though they don't quite do the experience justice.
At this point, the lights went out. But we didn't leave the grotto immediately. I dug out my old camping lantern and we went through it all once more, as if spelunking in the middle of Iowa. Just the two of us.
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 08:32 am (UTC)Anyway, nice pics!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 08:41 am (UTC)Where's the one in Wisconsin? If I'm ever in the area, I'd like to check it out!
Thanks! They weren't all easy to get, what with me being without a tripod to keep the camera steady enough to process the low-light photos. I'm glad they turned out as well as they did!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 08:46 am (UTC)To me, they're just another direction art can go, and art that's inspired by that kind of awe can be particularly beautiful if you ask me. Then again, if you ask me, art inspired by batshit insanity is also generally quite awesome; and really, why bother worrying about where to draw the line between the two? ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 08:49 am (UTC)I say God bless 'em both! :)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 12:14 am (UTC)The stuff in your photos is just gorgeous. I can't imagine ever finding myself in Iowa, but if by some accident I am, I truly hope I might have a chance to see it in person.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 12:42 am (UTC)Shut up. That is too what it is. I can't hear you LALALA.