Ave Maria Grotto
National Register Of Historic Places · Cullman, Alabama
Four landscaped acres on the grounds of St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman holding roughly 125 miniature reproductions of the great buildings and shrines of the world — St. Peter's, the Holy Land, Lourdes, the missions of California — built between the 1910s and the 1950s by Brother Joseph Zoettl, a Benedictine monk who was hunchbacked from a childhood injury and who worked from postcards. He made them out of donated junk: marbles, cold cream jars, costume jewellery, broken tiles, seashells and concrete. There is nothing else quite like it in the United States.
1600 St Bernard Drive SE, Cullman, Alabama, 35055, United States
Open almost every day of the year, generally 9 AM - 5 PM with earlier winter closing. Small admission at the gift shop. Self-guided. The adjoining St. Bernard Abbey is a working monastery and its buildings are not open to casual visitors.
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