Carved into an extinct cinder cone volcano–Rocky Butte–in Portland, the Grotto at the Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother is pretty metal as far as Catholic shrines go.
Protestors toppled Portland’s Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Rider during the Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage in 2020. That it was toppled might be the most interesting thing about what was otherwise a pretty dull equestrian statue, sculpted by Alexander Phimister Proctor and installed in 1922.
Szt. István beaming down beatifically at the building, a rare Hungarian-language Chicago church, and an unusual Protestant-to-Catholic church conversion.