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.

But these days, it is finding new fame as the basis for "The Brutalist," the epic drama about an immigrant architect, haunted by the Holocaust, that is a favorite to win best picture at the Oscars.

The tale of the church's genesis is as unlikely as the movie plot it inspired, spanning titans of architecture, ambitious monks, Vatican reform -- and an almighty row over that beehive window.

Giving tours to guests, abbey member Alan Reed begins by asking his guests: "How could this have happened?"

"That this small college at the time, in the middle of nowhere, run by a group of monks, would hire a world-famous architect... it is an amazing story," he told AFP.

It begins with Baldwin Dworschak, a 44-year-old "buttoned-down" abbot, who inherited stewardship of a........

© International Business Times