An Iowa priest vowed to build a shrine if he survived pneumonia; after recovering, he spent 42 years using over 100 train carloads of stone to create it
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…