Grotto of the Redemption

Grotto of the Redemption
National Register of Historic Places
	Main entrance to the Grotto of the Redemption
location	West Bend , Palo Alto County , Iowa
Coordinates	42 ° 57 '50 " N , 94 ° 26' 44" W Coordinates: 42 ° 57 '50 " N , 94 ° 26' 44" W.
Built	since 1912
architect	Paul Matthias Dobberstein
NRHP number	00001679
The NRHP added	February 23, 2001

The Grotto of the Redemption (German: Grotto of the Redemption ) is a sacred cave building in West Bend in Palo Alto County , Iowa , and as a historic landmark in the National Register of Historic Places entered (NRHP).

Building description

The grotto is built from different types of rock collected around the world . It consists of nine interconnected rooms in which the Passion of Christ is depicted. This is done through 65 statues made of Carrara marble . The statues were created by Italian sculptors and are spread over 26 stations of the cross .

history

The Grotto of the Redemption was mainly by Roman Catholic priests built Matthias Dobberstein. Dobberstein was a native German and emigrated to the United States in 1893 at the age of 20 . When Dobberstein became life-threatening with pneumonia in the seminary , he prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary and promised to erect a shrine to her in the event of his recovery. After his ordination in June 1897, he worked as a priest in West Bend from 1898 until his death in 1954. There he began storing rocks and precious stones that he collected while traveling across the country. In 1912 he started the construction of the Grotto of the Redemption, using the collected stones as building materials and benefiting from the geology studies that he had completed during his seminar time.

Until 1947 the construction work was carried out entirely by hand, after which Dobberstein used an electric lifting platform. When he was no longer physically able to do construction work, this was continued by Matthew Szerensce, who had accompanied the project from the beginning. After his retirement in 1959, Dobberstein's successor as pastor, Louis Greving, was responsible for maintaining and expanding the grotto. From 1994 the deacon Gerald Streit oversaw the ongoing expansion of the Grotto of the Redemption. The grotto as a whole is the largest collection of semi-precious stones , shells, fossils and minerals in the United States, valued at several million US dollars. In addition to the Grotto of the Redemption, Dobberstein built seven other sacred buildings in Iowa, Wisconsin and South Dakota . In addition, Dobberstein's work inspired Pastor Matthias Wernerus in the 1930s to build another grotto, the Dickeyville Grotto .

The Grotto of the Redemption has been registered in the NRHP since February 23, 2001. After interest in this attraction peaked in the 1920s when the grotto drew 100,000 visitors annually, it is currently still 40,000 people who visit it each year.

literature

Kristin G. Congdon, Kara Kelley Hallmark: American Folk Art: A Regional Reference. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-34936-2 , pp. 376-379.
Peter M. Nessen: National Register of Historic Places: Registration Form; here: The Grotto of the Redemption. In: National Register Information System. National Park Service May 31, 2000; Retrieved October 12, 2018 (495 KB).

Web links

Commons : Grotto of the Redemption - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

^ Peter M. Nessen: National Register of Historic Places: Registration Form; here: The Grotto of the Redemption. P. 6.
^ Peter M. Nessen: National Register of Historic Places: Registration Form; here: The Grotto of the Redemption. P. 6.
Alice Reed Morrison: Grottoes. In Simon J Bronner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of American Folklife (= Encyclopedia of American Folklife. Volume 1). Routledge, Abingdon 2006, ISBN 0-7656-8052-1 , pp. 523-527; here: p. 524f.
^ Kristin G. Congdon, Kara Kelley Hallmark: American Folk Art: A Regional Reference. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-34936-2 , p. 378.
Alice Reed Morrison: Grottoes. In Simon J Bronner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of American Folklife (= Encyclopedia of American Folklife. Volume 1). Routledge, Abingdon 2006, ISBN 0-7656-8052-1 , pp. 523-527; here: p. 525.
Peter M. Nessen: National Register of Historic Places: Registration Form; here: The Grotto of the Redemption. P. 7.
↑ Grotto of the Redemption in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed October 12, 2018.
^ Kristin G. Congdon, Kara Kelley Hallmark: Father Paul Matthias Dobberstein. In The Same: American Folk Art: A Regional Reference. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-34936-2 , pp. 376-379; here: p. 378.

[1] Peter M. Nessen: National Register of Historic Places: Registration Form; here: The Grotto of the Redemption. P. 6.

[2] Peter M. Nessen: National Register of Historic Places: Registration Form; here: The Grotto of the Redemption. P. 6.
Alice Reed Morrison: Grottoes. In Simon J Bronner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of American Folklife (= Encyclopedia of American Folklife. Volume 1). Routledge, Abingdon 2006, ISBN 0-7656-8052-1 , pp. 523-527; here: p. 524f.

[3] Kristin G. Congdon, Kara Kelley Hallmark: American Folk Art: A Regional Reference. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-34936-2 , p. 378.
Alice Reed Morrison: Grottoes. In Simon J Bronner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of American Folklife (= Encyclopedia of American Folklife. Volume 1). Routledge, Abingdon 2006, ISBN 0-7656-8052-1 , pp. 523-527; here: p. 525.
Peter M. Nessen: National Register of Historic Places: Registration Form; here: The Grotto of the Redemption. P. 7.

[4] Grotto of the Redemption in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed October 12, 2018.

[5] Kristin G. Congdon, Kara Kelley Hallmark: Father Paul Matthias Dobberstein. In The Same: American Folk Art: A Regional Reference. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-34936-2 , pp. 376-379; here: p. 378.