Why make it beautiful when you can make it ugly?

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St. John’s Abbey Church in Collegeville, MN


(image: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0)

Today we would like to introduce you to a gem of Brutalist architecture, the famed church associated with St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.

The architect who committed this eyesore is Marcel Breuer (1902-81), who is also responsible for St. Francis de Sales church in Norton Shores, Michigan.

Design and construction of this church began in the 1950s, so one can see how deeply the spirit of Modernism and the subsequent Vatican II religion was alive and well during that time.… READ MORE