Tour Buses and Snowbirds Welcome!
The Ave Maria Grotto is located on the grounds of St. Bernard Abbey, the only Benedictine monastery of men in the State of Alabama. The Abbey was founded in 1891. The Grotto consists of a landscaped hillside of 125 small stone and cement structures, the handiwork of the creative genius, Brother Joseph Zoetl, O.S.B., a monk of the Abbey for almost 70 years.
A pleasant two–block pathway winds beside these miniature buildings, passing in front of a large cavern–like grotto (Italian word for cave) on the lower level of the hillside. Opened in 1934 on the site of a former stone quarry used by the Abbey, the Grotto was a continuation of the work of Brother Joseph, who built his first replicas in about 1912 and his last, the miniature of the beautiful Lourdes Basilica Church, in 1958. It was constructed when he was 80 years old.
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