Iowa priest survived pneumonia, then spent 42 years building a stone shrine

In the late 19th century, a young seminarian battling a life-threatening bout of pneumonia made a promise that would eventually transform a small Iowa town into the home of one of the world's largest man-made grottos. If he survived, Father Paul Matthias Dobberstein vowed to build a shrine in honour of the Virgin Mary. He recovered and more than a century later, the promise he made has become a vast monument of stone, minerals, fossils and religious art in West Bend, Iowa.Known as the 'Grotto of the Redemption', the extraordinary structure was built over 42 years and incorporates material transported in more than 100 train carloads.