Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in Rio Grande City, Texas

Built to resemble the shrine in Lourdes in the South of France. The Rev. Gustav Gollbach, a German born priest who was the pastor of the neighboring Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, built much of the grotto himself. The mountain is decorated with plants from the desert surrounding Rio Grande City, and the rocks were gathered from nearby Roma and the petrified wood from Escobares. The concrete posts were formed to look like the branches from trees.