Festina (also called Twin Springs) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Winneshiek County,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, United States. It is located on

Iowa Highway 150 Iowa Highway 150 (Iowa 150) is an state highway (Iowa), state highway in eastern and northeastern Iowa. It begins at U.S. Route 218 (US 218) in Vinton, Iowa, Vinton and ends at U.S. Route 52 in Iowa, US 52 and Iowa Highway 24, Io ...

, south of Calmar.

History

In 1850–51, "a single house of entertainment, a kind of saloon" was located at Festina. St. Mary's Catholic Church was established in 1854. A school was attached in the 1880s. The settlement was platted in 1856. The

Turkey River Bridge Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and ...

, formerly located southwest of Festina, was the third largest

bowstring truss bridge A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or s ...

in the United States. Built in 1873, it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1998, then removed from the register in 2010 when it was demolished and replaced. - Information on the school zoning is on page 91 (PDF p. 92/512). The population in 1880 was 127. Around that time, Festina had a brewery, a public school, a post office, two general stores, and was described as lying "in a beautiful valley five miles south of Calmar". A creamery was located at the settlement in 1894. The population was 160 in 1940.

Education

Students attend schools in the

South Winneshiek School District The South Winneshiek Community School District (SW) is a rural public school district headquartered in Calmar, Iowa. With campuses in Calmar and Ossian, it serves grades Pre-K through 12th. The district is entirely in Winneshiek County, and ...

. CFS Catholic School formed as a consolidation of Catholic schools in Calmar, Festina, and Spillville. Prior to fall 2020 its campuses are St. Aloysius Center in Calmar and St. Wenceslaus Center in Spillville. In 2019 CFS and St. Theresa of Calcutta in

Ossian Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora (poem), Temora'' (1763), and later c ...

announced plans to consolidate into a single school, with the Calmar campus closing. Beginning fall 2020 the Ossian campus will house grades K-2 and middle school while the Spillville campus will house grades 3–4.

World's smallest church

Located southwest of Festina is St. Anthony of Padua Chapel, described at the "world’s smallest church". Measuring by , it is able to seat eight people. A public park adjoins the chapel and offers a picnic area, as well as canoe access and fishing in the Turkey River. The church was constructed to fulfill a vow made by Johann Gaertner's mother, who promised God she would build Him a chapel if her soldier son survived

Napoleon's Russian campaign The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign (), the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (), was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian Empire to comply with the continent ...

. The boy returned home unharmed, and the chapel was built of locally quarried stone in 1885.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Winneshiek County, Iowa Unincorporated communities in Iowa