![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Grotto-in-Dickeyville.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI always thought that a grotto was a cave. It turns out that the definition is a cave, \u00a0and it is usually a “small picturesque cave, especial and artificial one in a perk or a garden and it can also be an indoor structure resembling a cave.<\/p>\n
I parked Bart at the curb and walked over to examine the grotto. Its construction began in 1925 and it was dedicated in 1930.<\/p>\n Father Matthias Wernerus was the man with the vision to build shrines to religion and patriotism in stone. This portion of his handiwork is a shrine dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.<\/p>\n I borrowed this photo from their website<\/a>. It was dark inside and hard to make a good photo with my phone.<\/p>\n Father Wernerus used whatever he could get in creating the grottos. Sometimes he used rather standard ceramic tiles.<\/p>\n Other times he used shells, glass, corals and rocks.<\/p>\n I particularly like this ring of geodes. I remember my fruitless geode hunt<\/a> in Arizona.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ringing the main structure are niches with altars to various saints.<\/p>\n The back of the shrine is covered with the tree of life. On top of the tree of life is spelled out “fortitude.”<\/p>\n Flanking the tree on the right and left are various positive traits.<\/p>\n When I was visiting, I assumed they were the seven virtues<\/a>. When I was writing up this post, I realized that there were more than seven listed. I went looking for other lists of virtues, to see if Father Wernerus had used them. I found the twelve virtues<\/a> promoted by Aristotle, but there were thirteen spelled out on the wall. So, I guess these could be called “Father Wernerus’ good ideas.”<\/p>\n On the other hand, when I looked a little harder on the website, I saw that he represented\u00a0the Seven Gifts and the 12 Fruits of the Holy Ghost on the outside walls. I guess I didn’t look hard enough.<\/p>\n After examining the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin, I headed down the walkway to see the patriotic shrine.<\/p>\n George Washington was at one end.<\/p>\n Abraham Lincoln was at the other end.<\/p>\n Right in the middle was Christopher Columbus.<\/p>\n There was also a Unity Bell. I assume it was to honor the end of the Civil War.<\/p>\n There were other structures scattered about the grounds.<\/p>\n That looks like a birdhouse. I wonder if they even clear out the old nests?<\/p>\n I headed back toward the church. This was really quite an undertaking. I wondered why Father Wernerus began this labor. According to the website<\/a>, this is his explanation:<\/p>\n “Many reasons urged me to put up ‘Religion in stone and Patriotism in Stone.’ The main reason why it was done I could not reveal. The last day will tell you more about that. I can only say that Almighty God and his Blessed Mother, in whose honor we worked, blessed us in such a way that ‘we built better than we knew.'”<\/i><\/p>\n As I headed back to Bart, I noticed this sign:<\/p>\n I went down to take a look and I actually bought something.<\/p>\n After I stuck the 48th state sticker on my map, I had started to think that my full time traveling life was coming to an end.<\/p>\n Buying this roll of cloth let me know that I was\u00a0ready to settle down.<\/p>\n After much reflection,<\/p>\n I knew it was time to go home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As if the world largest can of beer wasn’t enough excitement for a fairly rural area, just a few miles east of the campground was Dickeyville, and Dickeyville’s claim to fame is the Dickeyville Grotto. I always thought that a grotto was a cave. It turns out that the definition is a cave, \u00a0and it … Continue reading Dickeyville Grotto<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[996],"class_list":["post-12007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dickeyville-grotto"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12007"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12015,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12007\/revisions\/12015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n