In 1912, Alabama monk Brother Joseph Zoettl began recreating landmarks he had mostly never seen; 46 years later, at age 80, he finished the last of 125 miniatures

• Alabama monk Brother Joseph ZoettlIn 1912, a Bavarian-born Benedictine monk at St.
• Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama, began building miniature cement copies of some of the world’s best-known religious sites, using postcards, pieces of marble and donated costume jewellery as his main guides.
• Brother Joseph Zoettl spent the next 46 years turning a four-acre hillside quarry into the Ave Maria Grotto.