Lake Wales, Florida: Ruins of St. Anne's Shrine
Built around 1920 to commemorate a local miracle. Most of it was demolished by an unsympathetic Catholic Church in 1950.
- Address:
- St. Anne's Shrine Rd, Lake Wales, FL
- Directions:
- From Lake Wales drive east six miles on Hwy 60/Hesperides Rd. Turn right onto St. Anne's Shrine Rd. When you reach the north end of St. Anne's Lake, drive around to the south end. The shrine is there, next to the water, just west of a tiny bridge and just east of Live Oak Trail.
- Admission:
- Free
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The pictures shown earlier are not of the Shrine, which is located just off the road a hundred yards to the east of the spot shown in the previous pics. That lakeside remnant was once a shrine to St. Christopher. St. Anne's Shrine is a grotto-like structure nearby. It survives largely intact and is in fact still used by the locals as an occasional venue for Mass.
[Passepartout22, 03/31/2018]Very peaceful but neglected. I could have spent some quite time if by myself. It's beautiful across from the lake. It's sad that the Shrine is not kept up better.
[Susan, 03/14/2018]The Shrine, spurned by the Church hierarchy, has been abandoned since 1950.
Pretty drive to get to the St. Anne's Shrine ruins.
[Mallory Billings, 12/04/2017]
Built around 1920 by French-speaking Catholics on a lake six miles east of Lake Wales.
[Jack Brown, 06/25/2016]The shrine commemorates St. Anne's miraculous healing of terminally ill cancer-ridden boy after he swam in adjacent St. Anne's Lake. Most of it was demolished by an unsympathetic Catholic Church in 1950, but some vestige survives.
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Our understanding is that all of the structures were part of St. Anne's Shrine. The small grotto at lakeside once held a statue of Jesus, but the main part of the Shrine is across the road, with a grotto set back in the trees.