26-05-2025
The resurrection of a Catholic theme park
The cross that now stands at Holy Land USA in Waterbury, Conn.
Anabel DeMartino
The cross is the centerpiece of
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Perched on a hill in the center of Waterbury, Holy Land USA was founded by a local attorney and devout Catholic, John Greco, and opened to the public in 1958. Greco's niece, Rebecca Calabrese, says the theme park was an extension of her uncle's spiritual calling. When he wasn't working as a lawyer, he lived a monk-like existence in a small house at the base of the hill and used all of his spare time and money to build and take care of Holy Land.
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A postcard of Holy Land USA in its heyday.
Bill Fitzpatrick
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Greco was resourceful, using discarded items — old bathtubs, factory doors, cinder blocks, chicken wire, and aluminum milk cans — to construct miniature replicas of Jerusalem (and its underground catacombs), Bethlehem, and even the Egyptian pyramids. The columns of the miniature Holy Temple are made from rusty water pipes, and a statue of Jesus rises from a concrete pillar that was originally designed for the Sears at the local mall. Locals donated much of the materials needed to construct the original neon cross and the massive sign bearing the park's name.
An undated photo of guests arriving at Holy Land USA in its early years.
Bill Fitzpatrick
Greco, who spent some of his childhood in Avellino, Italy, created the park as an American equivalent of the Catholic shrines he visited in that area. In particular, he wanted to build a version of the Sacri Monti (Holy Mountains) of Piedmont and Lombardy — nine 16th- and 17th-century Christian chapels and monuments that were intended as spiritual stand-ins for the Holy Land.
In 1984, too elderly to manage the park, Greco closed it and left the property to the Religious Sisters of Filippi.
What followed were decades of decay, as the statues and buildings succumbed to the elements and vandals. By the 2000s, many in Waterbury
Salvaged plumbing pipes became the pillars of this temple.
Anabel DeMartino
When, in 2013, the nuns listed the property for sale, Neil O'Leary, then Waterbury's mayor, took an interest. Together with local businessman Fritz Blazius, O'Leary bought the site for $375,000 with the promise to the nuns that it would always remain Holy Land USA. The first order of business: replacing the underwhelming stainless steel cross with which the nuns had replaced the once-impossible-to-miss neon one. During O'Leary's first campaign for mayor, he'd been struck by how many folks had urged him to 'put up a new cross at Holy Land.'
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It took six months and more than $400,000 in donated materials and labor. On Christmas Eve 2013, the 56-foot new cross, blazing with 5,000 LED bulbs, was lit up before a crowd of 20,000 in downtown Waterbury.
O'Leary and Blazius have since created a nonprofit foundation and a board to oversee the park's revitalization.
Since 2018, Reverend Jim Sullivan of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury and a member of the Holy Land board, has led an Easter sunrise mass that brings hundreds of worshippers to the base of the new cross. This past Easter, Sullivan says, was the largest gathering yet, with some 1,000 attendees. 'God speaks on mountains,' Sullivan says. 'God has spoken on this mountain and will continue to do so.'
