Grotto of the Redemption

♪♪ [Bruce Helleseth] It takes your breath away a lot of times.

A lot of people that come here say, why is this place here out in the middle of nowhere?

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Welcome to the Grotto of the Redemption, a shimmering testament to patience, craftsmanship and pure imagination.

Created by Father Paul Dobberstein, a German immigrant, the Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption rises in a mountain of crystals, carvings and colors, an unforgettable creation unlike anything else in Iowa or beyond.

[Bruce Helleseth] When he was being ordained a priest like two weeks before he was to be ordained, he got deathly sick with double pneumonia.

And in that time frame back in the 1890s, that was almost a death sentence.

So he made a promise to the Virgin Mary that for the grace of good health, he would build her a shrine.

And he recovered, and they ordained him.

And then he was assigned here in West Bend.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Father Dobberstein started construction of the grotto in 1912 after stockpiling rocks and precious stones from all 50 states and every country on the planet.

[Bruce Helleseth] The first grotto, which is called the Trinity Grotto, the one that he promised to build for Mary and that one alone took him five years to build.

And then from there, people would come and see it and they'd leave him donations.

And then he decided after he got finished with that one to expand it, and it just took off from there.

He just kept going.

♪♪ [Jane Kirchner] When they see grotto, they're thinking of something small and they think when they come, maybe they'll be here 20 minutes, it'll take just that long and then they're here for a few hours.

Everybody says pictures do not do it justice.

You have to come and see it.

♪♪ [Bruce Helleseth] There's rocks here that during World War I, I believe it was, he couldn't get supplies, so he made his own rocks.

He'd break up glass and melt crayons.

And there's a lot of them on these pillars you're looking at right there.

[Jane Kirchner] The fact that he did not draw blueprints or pictures, he just could see this in his mind.

[Bruce Helleseth] You can tell that the hand of God's helping him here.

♪♪ [Bruce Helleseth] It's a blessing for me to be here to meet all these people, to be able to work here and, and maintain and carry on the tradition that Father wanted to go and make it last for generations, hopefully.

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