Alabama monk recreated 125 landmarks he had mostly never seen

In 1912, a Bavarian-born Benedictine monk at St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama, began building miniature cement copies of some of the world’s best-known religious sites, using postcards, pieces of marble and donated costume jewellery as his main guides. Brother Joseph Zoettl spent the next 46 years turning a four-acre hillside quarry into the Ave Maria Grotto. He completed his 125th and final model in 1958 at the age of 80, according to historical records held by the Library of Congress and the official Ave Maria Grotto archives. Although Zoettl had visited only six of the places he recreated, he produced detailed models of landmarks including St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, ancient sites in Jerusalem and the Alamo.