Holy Land USA was an 18 acres (7.3 ha) theme park in Waterbury, Connecticut

Waterbury, Connecticut

Waterbury is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, on the Naugatuck River, 33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City...

, inspired by selected passages from the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

. It consists of a chapel, stations of the cross

Stations of the Cross

Stations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...

 and replicas of catacombs

Catacombs

Catacombs, human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place can be described as a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman empire...

 and Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

ite villages constructed from cinder blocks, bathtubs, and other discards. The park has been closed to the public since 1984, but its grounds remain intact.

Creation and peak years

Holy Land USA was conceived by John Baptist Greco, a Waterbury-based attorney. Greco, a Roman Catholic, organized a volunteer organization called Companions of Christ, with the purpose of creating an attraction that would replicate the Bethlehem

Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...

 and Jerusalem of the Biblical era. Bob Chinn, the grounds chairman at Holy Land USA, recalled Greco’s mission in a 2001 interview with The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

: "He was a very spiritual man. He wanted to do this for the people of the community. He felt no one, no matter the race, creed or color, should be separated. He wanted a place for all people to sit and be peaceful."

Among the attractions at the site were a recreation of the Garden of Eden

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...

, a diorama depicting Daniel

Daniel

Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...

 in the lions’ den, and various recreations of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. The centerpiece of the site was a 56-foot cross and an illuminated sign that read “Holy Land USA.”

During its peak years in the 1960s and 1970s, Holy Land USA attracted upwards of 40,000 visitors annually. Greco closed Holy Land USA in 1984, with plans to improve and expand the site. But the work was left unfinished when Greco died in 1986. The property was willed to the Religious Sisters of Filippi Greco.

Closure and deterioration

Since its closure, Holy Land USA has fallen into a state of advanced disrepair. Although it is not open to the public, the site continues to attract attention. In 2002, the Waterbury Region Convention and Visitors Bureau received more than 150 calls a year for directions to the site. The web site Roadside America has included it in its coverage of offbeat attractions, albeit with the cautionary note that visitors should “explore with caution (and with an up-to-date tetanus shot).” Many attractions and statues at the site have either been vandalized or otherwise fallen into disrepair.

There has been ongoing debate about the site's future. It has been suggested that the park be preserved as folk art, and there have been numerous failed attempts to restore the park, including one involving the Knights of Columbus

Knights of Columbus

The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....

 in 2000. The Religious Sisters of Filippi Greco have been accused of fearing "liability and being sued" and thereby turning away volunteers and stopping restoration efforts, but they have also received support from those who believe that, although accepting the park reluctantly, they have been "good stewards" over it. The Sisters hold weekly prayer meetings at the site and the holy hours on Sundays are devoted to the Virgin of Revelation, an apparition of the Virgin Mary witnessed in 1947 by an Italian on his way to assassinate Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII

The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. The Sisters claim the statue of the Madonna

Madonna (art)

Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains...

 in the chapel is one of three blessed by Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

.

Despite the lack of full restoration, some renovation projects have been undertaken since the park was closed. In 1997 a group of Boy Scouts repaired the illuminated “Holy Land USA” sign as part of a community service project and in 2008, the original 56-foot cross was replaced with a 50-foot stainless steel one, which was dedicated in a ceremony led by Archbishop Henry J. Mansell.

On television

In November 2002, Holy Land USA was featured in a four minute segment on The Daily Show

The Daily Show

The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...

 by Steven Colbert.

Rape and murder

In July 2010, the rape and murder of 16 year old Chloe Ottman at the foot of the cross received widespread media coverage and generated renewed interest in the park and its future use. Reports indicated that trespassing had reduced in the years before the murder.