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Holy Land, U.S.A.
An abandoned, religious-themed amusement park
Category Ghost Towns, Curious Places of Worship
The Underground Tomb.
Source
In the early 1950s John Baptist Greco, a staunch Roman Catholic, had a vision of a roadside theme park devoted to God. By the end of the decade, he had created exactly that: a theme park built to replicate a miniature Bethlehem. By the 1960s, the park was visited by some 50,000 people a year. One could come and see a recreation of the Garden of Eden, biblical-themed dioramas and various tributes to the life and work of Jesus Christ.
The park was perhaps best known for its Hollywood-style sign reading "Holy Land USA" and its 56-foot steel cross that can be seen for miles, especially when lit up at night. It is said that there is a town joke that citizens grow up thinking Jesus was electrocuted on the cross. In 1984, the park was closed for renovation. Greco had hopes of expanding the site to attract more visitors; however, this was never achieved as he died in 1986.
Responsibility for the park passed to a group of nuns. For a while, they tried to keep the park clean and neat looking but never opened to the public. Regardless of their efforts, the park became seedy and vandalised since Greco's death. To this day, the nuns still own the property, however, it is the local teenagers and foragers who have made their mark. Statues have been beheaded, dioramas destroyed, and tunnels blocked. Occasionally tourists still stop to look, and even explore, but they make sure they are gone before dark.
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- Address Slocum Street, Waterbury, Connecticut, United States
Comments
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Anonymous
August 5, 2010
Just a couple of weeks ago, someone raped and murdered a young woman up there. When you drive on the highway, you can see a big cross and, from what I heard anyway, this 19 year old brought a 16 year old girl up there, raped her repeatedly in front of the cross, and then murdered her. My details may be a little off, but basically a woman was murdered their recently. -
Anonymous
November 10, 2009
It sounds real creepy, but I bet it could be a cool tourist spot if it was cleaned up. I'd like to see it someday......in daylight, only, of course!
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Anonymous
August 23, 2009
It is too bad that more of Waterbury's citizens do not ban together and volunteer to at least keep this place cleaner and eventually turn it into something that people would come to see. It would be wonderful to at least start by planting some perrenial flowers at the entrance. It doesnt take much to spruce up a piece of land with flowers that grow wild. There is a park in Meriden, CT that attracts thousands of visitors every spring for its daffodil flowers. It should be a tradition that every year people go up there and plant daffodil or tulip bulbs. Eventually the place would be overrun with beautifull blooms. Legend has it that if you plant a daffodil bulb on Holy Land property you will forever be blessed with good luck.
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Anonymous
August 2, 2009
I grew up in Waterbury and lived just down the street from Holy Land. Even then (in the 70s mostly), it had a vaguely creepy feel about it. Primarily it was a place for all kinds of nefarious activities, in and amongst the miniature tableaux of Biblical scenes. Crazy people will do crazy things and this place screams "Crazy!"
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Anonymous
July 12, 2009
What a sad story of a great thing that a great man did and how those who do not understand about the awesome eye seeing God and that nothing is overlooked by him. I would not want to be them who destroy such a great work on that day of judgment.
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Simpsons did it! I guess this was the inspiration for the episode of the Simpsons where Ned Flanders opens a faith themed park.
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