22 Reasons to Visit Newfoundland

• Breathe the freshest air in the world.
  

• Stand on the Most Easterly Point of land in North America.
  

• See the only authenticated Viking landfall in North America.
  

• Sail around an icebergs while sipping Iceberg Vodka.
  

• Find a Newfoundland pony - North America's only descendent of the Westmoreland horse.
  

• View runes said to be left by St. Brendan 200 years before the Vikings.
  

• Have your picture taken with a NEWFOUNDLAND DOG.
  

• Try salmon, trout, or char fishing. If it's good enough for George Bush and Lee Wulfe, it's good enough for anyone!
  

• View caribou, puffins, gannets, and the world's largest gathering of whales.
  

• Catch some of our exciting nightlife. The bands and pubs of George Street in St. John's draw partiers from New Orleans!
  

• Get "screeched in" (ask a local what this means)!
  

• Check out the Labrador 400 dog-sled race.
  

• Check out unique local crafts at some of our great local gift stores.
  

• Visit the Exploits Salmon Festival in Grand Falls or watch leaping salmon at Big Falls, Rocky River, or one of a dozen other great salmon rivers.
  

• Visit some of the world's most prominent geological spectacles at Gros Morne National Park.
  

• Pick Bake-Apples, Partridgeberries, and blueberries -- check them out in local jams, wines, and desserts.
  

• Watch a moose - but don't hit one on our roads!
  

• Check out Dorset and Maritime Archaic sites.
  

• Travel to Mistaken Point with its accessible fossil beds.
  

• Check out the local music scene George Street - the most dynamic in Canada.
  

• Enjoy the colors of the Northern Lights - captured in Labrador sky.
  

• Relax!

Veiled Virgin-Giovanni Strazza

The Veiled Virgin, the beautiful marble statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was imported from Rome on December 4, 1856 by Bishop John Thomas Mullock, OSF, Bishop of St. John’s, Newfoundland. This “perfect gem of art”, as the bishop referred to it, was exquisitely sculptured by the internationally acclaimed Italian sculptor, Giovanni Strazza (1818-1875) from Milan. A St. John’s newspaper article at the time called it “ a perfect wonder of the sculptor’s art”.  The facial expression has a holy, ethereal quality that provides many people with a deeply religious experience, unique and lasting. In 1862 Bishop Mullock donated the Veiled Virgin masterpiece to the Presentation Convent through his blood sister, sister Mary de Pazzi Mullock who was a professed member of the presentation sisters at the time.  Mother M. Magdalen O’ Shaughnessy, the superior who accepted the statue for the congregation, was one of the pioneer sisters who came to Newfoundland from Galway in 1833.  Some examples of Strazza’s work may be seen in the Vatican Museum while others are found in the Cathedral at Milan.  One of Strazza’s greatest works, “Ishmael”, was destroyed during World War II in a bombing raid on Milan