WIRED Staff
Culture

Slideshow: Midwest Awash in Giant Grottos

In the early 20th century, artists and religious leaders in the Midwest outdid each other building vast shrines called grottos. Many of these eccentric constructions remain significant attractions today. Michelle Delio reports from Dickeyville, Wisconsin.
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The centerpiece of the Dickeyville Grotto delivers an inspirational message.

See related story: Midwest Awash in Giant Grottos

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Every square inch of the grotto is encrusted with embedded material.
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The Dickeyville Grotto is dwarfed by Iowa's Grotto of the Redemption, which takes up an entire city block and is encrusted with what is reportedly the largest private collection of semiprecious stones, minerals and petrified materials in the world, valued at $4.3 million.
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Born to be wild on the Great River Road.
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There are three shrines within the Dickeyville Grotto. Two are dedicated to religious subjects, the other to patriotic sentiments, with enshrined statues of Christopher Columbus and Presidents Washington and Lincoln.
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No one really knows exactly why Wernerus decided to create the Dickeyville Grotto. He wrote in a letter to his bishop that he had "many reasons and urges, but the main reason why it was done I cannot reveal."