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Father Paul Matthias Dobberstein, a German immigrant and Catholic priest born in 1872, came to America in 1893 to be trained in the priesthood in Wisconsin. While studying in seminary, Dobberstein came down with a severe case of pneumonia, nearly killing him. While on his presumed death bed, he promised that if he survived, he would build a shrine in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

After being ordained in 1898, Dobberstein was ushered off to a frontier village in Iowa just off the Des Moines River known as West Bend. Dobberstein started his priesthood but wasn’t satisfied with just the church. He wanted more for his congregation, and he had a promise to keep. Around the turn of the century, Dobberstein bought the marshland adjacent to the church to build a park and a man-made lake which was soon followed by an announcement of the construction of the shrine. In 1912 the first of seven Grottos began and continued to evolve, day and night, year-round until 1954.

As interest grew, an estimated 100,000 visitors come a year, the shrine grew as well. Underneath the millions of carefully cemented rocks and stones lay metal scaffolding that weaves in and around this small city block to create the beautiful mind-blowing exterior showcasing geology’s finest from more than a dozen states and a handful of countries worldwide.

Depending on who you ask, the total estimated value of the world’s largest grotto is between $2mil and $4 mil. The most expensive stone across the entire complex, some of the finest Italian marble can be found steps away from both melted-down glass bottles colored with crayons (the Great Depression was rough) and gorgeous stained glass from Dobberstein’s native Germany.