ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

The Garden of Gethsemane - A Spiritual Oasis in Tucson

Updated on March 23, 2013

A Spiritual Oasis in the Midst of a Bustling City

Visitors traveling along Interstate 10 between Atlanta and Los Angeles can obtain a spiritual recharge while passing through Tucson, Arizona, if they pause take the Congress St. west exit off of Interstate 10 in downtown Tucson, Arizona.

Once off the freeway they will immediately find themselves on the bridge crossing the Santa Cruz River. They shouldn't be fooled by the sight of sand and trees where an ordinary river would contain water. This is a river and, on the few occasions when it rains during the year, this peaceful stretch of sand, weeds and trees becomes a raging river.

Once across the bridge turn right on to Bonita Ave. and pull into the small parking lot of the Garden of Gethsemane-Felix Lucero Park.

A
Garden of Gethsemane, Tucson, AZ:
Garden of Gethsemane, 602 West Congress Street, Tucson, AZ 85745, USA

get directions

Garden of Gethsemane located on west side of Santa Cruz River on NE Corner of Congress St. and Bonita.

Sitting the west bank of the Santa Cruz River across the street from the central business district and the interstate, this site has been a spiritual oasis for people seeking a few moments to relax and mediate for over a half a century.

Walled off from the noise of the surrounding city and lush with plants and trees the garden has an immediate calming effect on visitors.

The name, Garden of Gethsemane refers to the garden where Jesus prayed before being arrested and crucified.

Dominating this garden are life size concrete statues of Christ, his Apostles and his mother and father. Maintained and supported by a partnership between the Catholic Knights of Columbus and the City of Tucson Parks and Recreation Department, the park is a gift to God from a grateful artist.

Christ on the Cross in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park.
Christ on the Cross in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park. | Source

A Wounded Soldier Keeps his Promise to God

Like other young men of his generation, Felix Lucero, a Native American from Trinidad, Colorado, was drafted into the Army and sent across the Atlantic to the trenches of France to fight in World War I.

Following a battle in which his unit engaged the enemy, Felix found himself laying alone among the dead and near-dead who had been abandoned and left to die on the now silent battle ground.

Critically injured himself, as well as alone and scared, he prayed to God for life, promising that in return for the gift of continued life he would devote that life to building statutes of Christ wherever he went in that life.

His prayer was answered and following his rescue, recovery and return home, this young man, with no formal training in art, kept his promise to God and began to devote his life to creating sculptures of Christ and related religious figures.

Despite his lack of formal training, his figures have a majesty and realism that people can immediately relate to and feel some of the bond that Lucero felt with God.

Felix Lucero appears to have been a classic starving artist. He drifted into Arizona during the Depression years of the 1930s and finally settled in Tucson in 1938.

Home in Tucson was a plywood and cardboard shelter erected under the Congress Street Bridge. He was homeless, living a few yards from where the park holding his sculptures now stands.

When it rains and the Santa Cruz turns into a raging torrent of water, a considerable amount of trash and debris is left behind by the receding waters. Lucero collected this debris along with pieces of driftwood and sand from the river and created his sculptures and other works of religious art. Despite his austere lifestyle, Lucero did establish a reputation as an artist in his lifetime and received commissions from other parts of Arizona if not further abroad. In 1939 a group of Catholics from Phoenix commissioned Lucero to create the Stations of the Cross in the Weaver Mountains overlooking Yarnell, a town northwest of Phoenix. While not as famous has his Garden of Gethsemane in Tucson, the Stations of the Cross in Yarnell are just as impressive and located in a similar magnificent setting.

The sculptures that grace the Garden of Gethsemane in Tucson were a work in progress the entire time he lived in Tucson. They were originally made of sand and plaster but were soon destroyed by the flooding river. Later versions were cast in concrete to make them more durable. However, despite their beauty, most of the sculptures were created from trash found in the river such as the bed springs that provide the interior support for the table in the last supper sculpture. Lucero apparently just created the sculptures and mounted them on the bank next to his home. But they soon attracted neighborhood people and later others from further away who treated the spot as a shrine where they came to pray and meditate. Following Lucero's death the pilgrims continued to come and to preserve and maintain the shrine. With the help of the Knights of Columbus and later the City of Tucson the site has remained and, in recent years formally preserved as a park.

Today, the faithful still come to pray, but the secret is out and the park attracts people from all over. It has also become a popular spot for weddings and quincenaras. However, despite its fame, it retains its spirituality and continues to envelope visitors with its peace as they enter. A beautiful legacy and monument of one man's promise to God

The Park

Sign pointing to Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Park.
Sign pointing to Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Park. | Source

Entrance to the Garden

Gate at entrance to the sculptures in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park.
Gate at entrance to the sculptures in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park. | Source

The Garden

View fence around sculpture garden in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park.
View fence around sculpture garden in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park. | Source

The Last Supper

Sculpture of Christ with his Apostles at the Last Supper in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park.
Sculpture of Christ with his Apostles at the Last Supper in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park. | Source

Christ on Cross

Close up photo of life size sculpture of Christ on the Cross in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park.
Close up photo of life size sculpture of Christ on the Cross in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park. | Source

Christ in Tomb

Christ in the tomb in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park.
Christ in the tomb in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park. | Source

View of Garden

View inside the sculpture garden in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park.
View inside the sculpture garden in Tucson's Garden of Gethsemane Felix Lucero Park. | Source

© 2006 Chuck Nugent

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)