Our Lady of the Snows
Despite our efforts last year, we never found the right buyer for our camper. This is far from a tragedy for us, we love the thing. We just found ourselves in a place where the sale could have given us a little cushion. But here we all are still, March 2026, and she’s still ours to adventure in, even if that adventure is in our own backyard. So, while it’s ours, we’re making an effort to really utilize it and keep the restoration efforts going. Enjoying the camper right now is mostly joy rides, which double for my mechanic husband as test drives. Today, we did some joy riding/test driving around town and ended up at one of our city’s main attractions, the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. From an anthropological standpoint, this spot is very interesting to me. The yonic architecture is interesting and inspiring.
Our Lady of the Snows is the largest outdoor Marian Shrine in the United States.
The back side of the natural outdoor amphitheater, designed for outdoor masses.
Lower portion, back half of the amphitheater
What’s with the name? The Shrine is named after a title of Mary: Santa Maria ad Nives (Lady of the Snows). The legend goes that about 1500 years ago, Mary appeared and instructed a church to be built, and that snow miraculously fell at the building site, what’s now known as Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
Hail Mary | Shalom lakh, Miryam | Ave Maria
The shrine was built in the 1960s in a style known specifically as Modernist Ecclesiastical Architecture, which is a style of church building that embraces concepts, ideas and aesthetics found within the Prairie School and Organic Architecture styles that the midwest is famous for, Belleville being no exception.
These two interesting doors have been added to my Doorways collection; photos of the most interestings doors I can find. Debuting TBD.
Clearest reference to the yonic inspiration to the design.
The upper structure is said to also be interpreted as the letter “M”
There are interior areas that we did not visit today. Also, of course no post about the Shrine could omit the annual Way of Lights in December, when the driving paths within the shrine are transformed with thousands of christmas lights. By March, the lights have long been down, but I’m sure it’ll be time to rehang them again in no time.
Outdoor amphitheater seating
“The Millennium Spire” by sculptor William C. Severson
Lourdes Grotto, a replica of a sacred catholic shrine in Lourdes, France.
“I am the immaculate conception”
If you’re visiting to be inspired by the architecture, there’s no bad time of year to visit. Belleville’s most flourishing and most lush time of year is late May to early September.
‘Til next time!
