AREA THAT I REALLY THINK YOU’LL LOVE. BEHIND A QUIET MONASTERY, THE WORLD OPENS UP FROM ALABAMA. YOU CAN WALK TO ROME, TO JERUSALEM, TO CHINA. IT’S AVE MARIA GROTTO, AND IT’S BASICALLY HAIL MARY, ALL IN ABOUT AN HOUR. MORE THAN 125 TINY LANDMARKS. MOST OF THEM ARE RELIGIOUS TYPE STRUCTURES. BE THE VATICAN OR SAINT PETER’S BASILICA. YOU NOTICE THE SIGNS UP HERE HAVE SCENES FROM THE HOLY LAND. BUT LOOK CLOSELY. YOU’LL FIND NEARLY EVERY WONDER YOU’VE EVER SEEN ON A POSTCARD. COLOSSEUM, THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA. THAT IS SO COOL. SO WE HAVE THE SPANISH SECTION COMICAL OR WHIMSICAL SIDE AS WELL. SO YOU’LL SEE HANSEL AND GRETEL. EVERY ARCH, EVERY COLUMN, EVERY CAREFUL CURVE. IT IS COLEMAN’S OLDEST TOURIST ATTRACTION. BECAUSE OF THAT, AND WE ROUGHLY GET, I WOULD SAY, 40,000 VISITORS A YEAR FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, ALL 50 STATES BUILT BY ONE MAN, BROTHER JOSEPH ZOE.L STATUE, BROTHER JOE HERE, RIGHT. ALMOST LIFESIZE. HE WAS ONLY FOUR FOOT TEN. HE WEIGHED ABOUT 85, 90 POUNDS. HE WOUND UP SHOVELING COAL. THAT’S WHAT HE WOULD DO. AND AT NIGHT, HE STARTED BUILDING THESE THINGS. IMAGINE THAT. YOU KNOW, HIM CREATING ALL THIS BENEDICTINE MONK WHO NEVER TRAVELED THE GLOBE OF THE STRUCTURES THAT ARE HERE. HE MAY HAVE SEEN PERSON 5 OR 6, BUT BUILT IT ANYWAY. HE’S FROM BAVARIA, GERMANY. HE WAS BAPTIZED HERE AS A YOUTH. HE WAS 14 OR 15, I THINK, WHEN HE CAME HERE TO CULLMAN. AND THAT’S WHY HE HAD THE STATUE OF LIBERTY. HE PASSED THROUGH ELLIS ISLAND, A VERY HUMBLE MAN. THIS IS HIS LIFE’S WORK. TOOK HIM 50 TO 55 YEARS TO BUILD ALL OF THIS. THE MATERIALS, A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING, DETAILS OR, YOU KNOW, JUST THE MARBLE BROKEN PLATES, YOU KNOW, BROKEN TOILET FLOATS, NOXEMA JARS. GOT TO BE KIND OF A PACK RAT. I GUESS PEOPLE WOULD JUST START SENDING HIM STUFF FOR DECADES WHILE THE WORLD CHASED BIGGER AND LOUDER, HE STAYED. HE WAS PROBABLY DOWN HERE EVERY DAY ON THIS COLEMAN HILL SIDE RARELY WORE HIS HABIT. HE WOULD HAVE OVERALLS AND A STRAW HAT. IF HE SAW YOU COMING, HE WOULD LEAVE PIECE BY PIECE IN SILENCE. SO YOU SEE THAT TYPE OF HUMILITY WITHIN BROTHER JOSEPH, WHERE HE WAS VERY SHY. YOU KNOW, HE BUILT THESE SPECTACULAR THINGS AND HE DIDN’T WANT YOU TO REALLY BE KNOWN FOR DOING THAT. EVEN WHEN THIS PARK WAS OPENED IN 1934, HIS NAME WAS NOT MENTIONED. HE CONTINUED TO BUILD STRUCTURES AND PLACE THEM HERE UNTIL 1958. AND THEN HE PASSED AWAY IN 1961. AND MAYBE THAT’S WHY IT MATTERS. THE BENEDICTINE TRADITION HAS ALWAYS BEEN OPEN ARMED. THAT THIS IS HERE, NOT IN ITALY, NOT IN THE MIDDLE EAST, NOT NEW YORK, BUT CULLMAN COUNTY HAS HAD THE GREATEST INFLUENCE. NOT ONLY THIS MONASTERY, BUT PROBABLY ANYONE. IN COLEMAN CULLMAN COUNTY AS FAR AS AFFECTING SOMEONE’S LIFE, WHERE THE WORLD WAS BUILT BY HAND, PEOPLE WHO COME HERE, YOU KNOW, THEY MAY NOT BE NECESSARILY RELIGIOUS, THEY MAY BE OR MAY NOT, BUT WHAT THEY GET AT ALL, THE GET OUT OF IT IS A SENSE OF PEACE AND A SENSE OF JOY, A REMINDER YOU DON’T HAVE
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‘He built these spectacular things’: A look into a miniature world
Behind a quiet monastery in north Alabama, the world unfolds in miniature.From a hillside, visitors can walk from Rome to Jerusalem to China in about an hour with no passport required.“It’s Ave Maria Grotto,” said Roger Steele, the site’s director.Tucked beside St. Bernard Abbey, the park features more than 125 tiny reproductions of famous landmarks, from St. Peter’s Basilica to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, from scenes of the Holy Land to whimsical touches like Hansel and Gretel.Look closely, and nearly every curve, arch and column reveals painstaking detail. Marble fragments, seashells, broken tiles, even discarded household items, are transformed into intricate works of art.But what makes the Grotto remarkable isn’t just what was built.It’s who built it.Brother Joseph Zoettl, a Benedictine monk, created the entire collection by hand over more than five decades. Standing just 4 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing under 100 pounds, Zoettl spent his days working at the monastery, often shoveling coal, and his nights crafting the tiny structures.“He wound up shoveling coal … and at night building these things,” Steele said.Zoettl, who emigrated from Bavaria, Germany, as a teenager and passed through Ellis Island before settling in Cullman, had seen only a handful of the landmarks he recreated.“Of the structures that are here, he may have seen personally five or six,” Steele said.Still, he built the world anyway.Using whatever materials he could find or was given, broken plates, jars, even toilet tank floats, Zoettl slowly expanded the Grotto piece by piece. Over time, visitors and admirers began sending him items, feeding what Steele described as a humble “pack rat” tendency that became part of the art itself.For decades, as the outside world grew louder and faster, Zoettl remained on the hillside, working quietly and largely out of sight. Known for his humility, he often wore overalls and a straw hat instead of his monastic habit and would disappear if he saw visitors approaching.Even when the park opened to the public in 1934, his name wasn’t mentioned.“He built these spectacular things, but he didn’t really want to be known for doing that,” Steele said.Zoettl continued adding to the Grotto until 1958. He died in 1961.Today, the site draws roughly 40,000 visitors each year from all 50 states and around the world, making it Cullman’s oldest tourist attraction.But its impact goes beyond numbers.“The Benedictine tradition has always been open-armed, welcoming to everyone,” Steele said.Visitors don’t have to be religious to feel something here, he added. Many leave with a sense of peace and quiet joy.And maybe that’s what makes the Grotto so powerful.It’s not in Italy. Not in the Middle East. Not in New York.It’s here in Cullman County, Alabama. A place where one man, who never traveled far, built the world by hand.A reminder that you don’t have to go everywhere to create something that lasts.
Behind a quiet monastery in north Alabama, the world unfolds in miniature.
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From a hillside, visitors can walk from Rome to Jerusalem to China in about an hour with no passport required.
“It’s Ave Maria Grotto,” said Roger Steele, the site’s director.
Tucked beside St. Bernard Abbey, the park features more than 125 tiny reproductions of famous landmarks, from St. Peter’s Basilica to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, from scenes of the Holy Land to whimsical touches like Hansel and Gretel.
Look closely, and nearly every curve, arch and column reveals painstaking detail. Marble fragments, seashells, broken tiles, even discarded household items, are transformed into intricate works of art.
But what makes the Grotto remarkable isn’t just what was built.
It’s who built it.
Brother Joseph Zoettl, a Benedictine monk, created the entire collection by hand over more than five decades. Standing just 4 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing under 100 pounds, Zoettl spent his days working at the monastery, often shoveling coal, and his nights crafting the tiny structures.
“He wound up shoveling coal … and at night building these things,” Steele said.
Zoettl, who emigrated from Bavaria, Germany, as a teenager and passed through Ellis Island before settling in Cullman, had seen only a handful of the landmarks he recreated.
“Of the structures that are here, he may have seen personally five or six,” Steele said.
Still, he built the world anyway.
Using whatever materials he could find or was given, broken plates, jars, even toilet tank floats, Zoettl slowly expanded the Grotto piece by piece. Over time, visitors and admirers began sending him items, feeding what Steele described as a humble “pack rat” tendency that became part of the art itself.
For decades, as the outside world grew louder and faster, Zoettl remained on the hillside, working quietly and largely out of sight. Known for his humility, he often wore overalls and a straw hat instead of his monastic habit and would disappear if he saw visitors approaching.
Even when the park opened to the public in 1934, his name wasn’t mentioned.
“He built these spectacular things, but he didn’t really want to be known for doing that,” Steele said.
Zoettl continued adding to the Grotto until 1958. He died in 1961.
Today, the site draws roughly 40,000 visitors each year from all 50 states and around the world, making it Cullman’s oldest tourist attraction.
But its impact goes beyond numbers.
“The Benedictine tradition has always been open-armed, welcoming to everyone,” Steele said.
Visitors don’t have to be religious to feel something here, he added. Many leave with a sense of peace and quiet joy.
And maybe that’s what makes the Grotto so powerful.
It’s not in Italy. Not in the Middle East. Not in New York.
It’s here in Cullman County, Alabama.
A place where one man, who never traveled far, built the world by hand.
A reminder that you don’t have to go everywhere to create something that lasts.
