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International Business Times
International Business Times
Business

DARK SECRETS: How a forgotten minnesota monastery inspired the brutalist | Rare Historical Photos

The tale of the Saint John's Abbey Church is as unlikely as the movie plot it inspired, spanning titans of architecture, ambitious monks, Vatican reform -- and an almighty row over its beehive window (Credit: AFP)

On a snowy prairie in Minnesota stands a monastery like no other. A concrete trapezoid banner encasing a bell tower looms over a giant, beehive-shaped front window composed of hundreds of gently shimmering hexagons.

For half a century, the existence of this modernist masterpiece has been mainly known to the Benedictine monks who worship there, and the hordes of architects who make pilgrimages to Saint John's Abbey Church each summer.

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