Ave Maria Grotto

The Ave Maria Grotto, located on the grounds of Alabama's first and only Benedictine Abbey, consists of over 125 miniatures, reproductions of famous churches, shrines and buildings that encompass an area of over three acres.

They are the lifetime work of a monk, Brother Joseph Zoettl, born in Bavaria, who came to the Abbey in 1911. They are made of stone and concrete and castaway, salvaged, and donated materials including such things as colored glass, marbles,brick, tiles, cold cream jars, punctured commode floats, shells, wrecked marble, costume jewelry, automobile reflectors, broken china, small figurines, etc., many of which were sent by people from all over the world.

Begun as a hobby in 1918, the first thing he constructed was a church that is still in existence. A year later he made some small oriental buildings which were later called Little Jerusalem

These first replicas were located on the monastery recreation grounds, but because of the large number of visitors, they needed to be moved to a new location. Brother Joseph's great aspiration was to build a large grotto to be the centerpiece of the new site. Although he had made thousands of small ones to sell, the challenge was daunting and creating it would require a great deal of material. One source occurred by chance when, in April 1933, a train derailed about twenty miles from the Abbey. One of the freight cars contain marble from the Gantt Quarry, Sylacauga, Alabama which was crushed when the car overturned. The broken pieces were given to the Abbey where they were used by Brother Joseph to form the main stalactites to hang in the Great Grotto. His dream was realized and on May 17, 1934, the Ave Maria Grotto was dedicated.

During his lifetime Brother Joseph re-created some of the greatest edifices of all time despite having never seen them in person, primarily using photographs and postcards as guides. He built his last model, the Basilica in Lourdes, at the age of 80, in 1958. He died on October 15, 1961.

Since his death some additional replicas and shrines have been added to the grounds, but for the most part, they lack the rich ornamentation that adorn those created by Brother Joseph and, in my opinion, are dull in comparison and look somewhat out of place among the original works.

The Ave Maria Grotto, located on the grounds of Alabama's first and only Benedictine Abbey, consists of over 125 miniatures, reproductions of famous churches, shrines and buildings that encompass an area of over three acres.

They are the lifetime work of a monk, Brother Joseph Zoettl, born in Bavaria, who came to the Abbey in 1911. They are made of stone and concrete and castaway, salvaged, an…  (read more)

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