Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption

Father Paul Dobberstein, a German-immigrant Catholic priest, began building a shrine to the Virgin Mary in West Bend, Iowa in 1912 after recovering from near-fatal pneumonia, a vow he made if he survived. Working largely alone for over four decades, he gathered and mortared an enormous collection of gems, geodes, petrified wood, shells, and minerals into nine linked grottoes depicting scenes from the life of Christ. Dobberstein died in 1954 with the project still underway; helpers, including Father Louis Greving, continued the work afterward. The Grotto of the Redemption was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and now draws more than 100,000 visitors a year.