Cullman is the largest city and county seat of Cullman County, Alabama..located just 50 miles north of Birmingham. Five German families moved to the area in March 1873; and by 1874, the town was incorporated and named after Colonel Cullmann. Over the next 20 years, Cullmann encouraged around 100,000 Germans to immigrate to the United States, with many settling in the Cullman area. In the 1840s monks from Metten Abbey in Germany, a monastery founded in 700 A.D., came to America, to minister to the growing German-speaking immigrant population. St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, became the first foundation of the German monks, and in the 1870s monks from St. Vincent were sent to Alabama to serve the needs of German Catholics. In 1891 those monks gathered to establish St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama. One of those monks, was Bavarian born Joseph Zoettl, the creator of Ave Maria Grotto.

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Researched was used for this episode of Southern Oddities, and we couldn't have made it possible without the journalism and dedication from these awesome sources of information: Roadside America [Story 2015] Ave Maria Grotto [Main Website] Wikipedia [Ave Maria Grotto] Wikipedia [Cullman, Alabama] Encyclopedia of Alabama [Ave Maria Grotto] Atlas Obscura [Ave Maria Grotto] The Bama Buzz [The Hidden History of Cullams Ave Maria Grotto] St Bernard Abbey [Main Website]

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