Editing Victoria, Kansas (section)

==Culture==
[[Image:Victoria Kansas Cathedral of the Plains.jpg|thumb|right|The Basilica of St. Fidelis (1997)]]

===Events===
The Herzogfest is Victoria's annual community festival, held to celebrate the city's [[German American|ethnic German]] heritage.  Held in August, it includes music concerts, a tractor pull, games for children, and other local entertainment.  There is delicious food from the German heritage and other vendors.<ref>{{cite web | title = About the Herzogfest | publisher = Herzogfest, Inc. | url = http://www.herzogfest.com/ | access-date = 2011-03-18}}</ref>

===Points of interest===
* The [[Basilica of St. Fidelis (Victoria, Kansas)|Basilica of St. Fidelis]], known as "The Cathedral of the Plains", is located in Victoria. Local [[Roman Catholicism|Roman Catholic]] residents, having outgrown a series of church buildings as their population grew, began construction of the church in 1908.<ref name=Herzog/> Built from native [[limestone]] based on plans by noted church architect [[John T. Comes]], St. Fidelis Catholic Church was completed in 1911.<ref name=Herzog/><ref>{{cite news | last = Dary | first = David | title = The Cathedral of the Plains | date = 1972-12-17 | newspaper = [[The Kansas City Star]] | url = http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/articles/newspapers/news/hamil4.html | access-date = 2011-03-18}}</ref> [[William Jennings Bryan]] gave the church its nickname during a visit in 1912.<ref>{{cite web | title = St. Fidelis Church Titles and Honors | publisher = St. Fidelis Catholic Church | url = http://www.stfidelischurch.com/ | access-date = 2011-03-18}}</ref> In June 2014, the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Salina]] dedicated the church as a [[minor basilica]], renaming it the Basilica of St. Fidelis.<ref>{{cite web | last = Weller | first = Doug | title = Kansas church, dubbed 'Cathedral of the Plains,' named minor basilica | publisher = [[Catholic News Service]] | url = http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1401112.htm | archive-url = https://archive.today/20140318155846/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1401112.htm | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2014-03-18 | date = 2014-03-17 | access-date = 2014-09-16 }}</ref>

* Grant Cemetery is a preservation of the gravesites of George Grant and a few others dating to the 1880s on the grounds of the St. George Church, founded by Grant. Every 50 years, the [[American Aberdeen-Angus Breeders' Association]] commemorates the 1873 establishment of the first Aberdeen Angus herd in the United States. For the centennial in 1973, Hays artist [[commons:Category:Peter Felten, Jr.|Pete Felten Jr.]] installed a limestone sculpture of a Black Angus.

* Railroad Workers Cemetery is a preservation of the gravesites of a party of workers who were killed in 1867 while excavating the approaches to the railroad bridge just to the north. They were killed by [[Cheyenne Dog Soldiers]] who rejected the treaty permitting the construction, this action triggering the [[Battle of the Saline River]].

* St. Fidelis Cemetery contains over 100 traditional German iron cross grave markers, the most iron crosses of the cemeteries in the Volga-German settlements.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.kstravel.com/historic-iron-crosses/ |title= Historic Iron Crosses |website= kstravel |access-date= 2024-04-07 }}</ref> This cemetery also has a number of gravestones that were carved from the region's unusual [[Fencepost limestone]] by John Linenberger.<ref name= LotPR >{{cite book |author1= Grace Muilenburg |author2-link= Ada Swineford |author2= Ada Swineford |title= Land of the Post Rock – Its Origins, History, and People |publisher= University Press of Kansas, Lawrence |year= 1975 |access-date= November 15, 2018 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kwR6AAAAMAAJ  |isbn= 978-0-7006-0129-5 |pages= 149, 150}}</ref>