St. Donatus, Iowa

St. Donatus is one of the oldest Luxembourgish settlements in America. The first Luxembourger, John Noel, arrived in 1838; Peter Gehlen followed in 1846 and founded the village, naming it for Saint Donatus, patron saint of protection from lightning and storms. Fleeing poverty and famine at home, Luxembourgish families made this corner of Jackson County a “little Luxembourg” on the Mississippi.

Some eighteen original limestone buildings from the 1840s and ’50s still stand, including the Gehlen House and Barn — one of Iowa’s few stone barns, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Behind St. Donatus Catholic Church winds the Outdoor Way of the Cross, completed in the early 1860s under Father Michael Flammang and recognized as the first of its kind in the United States; the Pietà Chapel at its crest is modeled on the Chapelle du Bildchen in Vianden, Luxembourg.