Madonna Queen of the Universe

East Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A 35-foot bronze and copper statue of the Blessed Mother by Italian-Jewish sculptor Arrigo Minerbi stands in the plaza of the Madonna Queen of the Universe National Shrine at Orient Heights, East Boston. The shrine says it was dedicated in 1954.

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Madonna Queen of the Universe

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Site-level location · 42.3899° N, 71.0056° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

High on the Orient Heights hill, a 35-foot bronze and copper Madonna stands in the plaza of a shrine that, by its own description, overlooks Boston Harbor and Logan Airport's runways, and the story of who made her is as striking as her size.

The statue is a replica of a figure the Italian-Jewish sculptor Arrigo Minerbi made for the hill of Montemario above Rome. According to the shrine, Minerbi escaped persecution after the German invasion of Italy in part because of the refuge the Don Orione Institution in Rome gave him. Boston Magazine, in 2017, described the East Boston statue as created in tribute to the Catholic order that harbored him. The shrine says the replica was shipped to the Don Orione Fathers in East Boston in three pieces, reassembled, and dedicated as "The Madonna Queen of the Universe" by then-Archbishop Richard Cushing in 1954.

The figure was originally erected over the Don Orione nursing home at Orient Heights and later moved to the plaza across the street. In the 1980s, according to the shrine, a four-story underground shrine was completed beneath the plaza. The immense gray granite structure with a gold crown-like top is, in the shrine's words, a visual distinction in East Boston, and the shrine says it is now the US headquarters of the Don Orione order.

The shrine puts the statue's weight at six tons. Call the shrine for visiting hours before you go, particularly if you want to go inside.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Telephone listed by GCatholic: (617) 569-8792. Call ahead for visiting hours; Mass times are posted on the shrine's website. Views of Boston Harbor and Logan Airport are described by the operator.

ACCESS

150 Orient Ave., East Boston, MA 02128; the statue stands in the shrine plaza across the street from the Don Orione nursing home.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

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Bunker Hill Monument

Boston, Massachusetts

The Bunker Hill Monument is a 221-foot granite obelisk on Breed’s Hill in Charlestown, Boston. Its cornerstone was laid on 17 June 1825 and it opened in 1843. Visitors can climb 294 steps in a tight spiral to the top, with 25 people allowed inside at a time.

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4.8 km away

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