fbpx
Menu

Only Mounds of Rock & Rubble Remain Where Orlando Theme Park Stood for Decades

walt disney points to a map of central florida
Credit: Disney

Mounds of rock and rubble are all that remain where once a vibrant and bustling Orlando theme park recently stood.

The Story Of Walt Disney's Secret Property Play, A "Worthless" Swamp and Tricking Florida For Billions Of Dollars

Credit: Disney

Orlando, Florida, has served as a veritable mecca for visitors and tourists from around the world for decades, and the influx of travelers, both domestic and international, can largely be credited to Walt Disney and his decision more than 60 years ago to build his second family theme park resort amongst the tens of thousands of acres of swampy lowlands in Central Florida. When Disney arrived in the Orlando area in the early 1960s, the city wasn’t anything like the vibrant, hotel- and amusement park-packed tourist destination it is today.

Because of Disney’s success in the Orlando area, other theme park owners followed suit, choosing to build in the same general area. Universal Studios Orlando Resort, Legoland Resort, SeaWorld Orlando, and others now populate the Orlando area. And while the Walt Disney World Resort takes the prize as the largest theme park resort in the area with the most visitors annually, another theme park in Orlando did something none of the others could.

The Holyland Experience

Credit: Holy Land Experience

Rather than offering visitors an experience bent on magic, movies, minions, and mayhem, like its counterparts, the Holy Land Experience in Orlando offered an experience with a message–one of hope. For nearly 20 years, the Holy Land Experience theme park, located just off I-4 at Conroy Road in Orlando, welcomed guests through its gates to experience several themed lands, each one inspired by events chronicled by the Bible.

The park could be seen from the interstate and was an established member of Central Florida’s bustling massive theme park district. But while Disney World, Universal Studios, SeaWorld Orlando, and others offered visitors interactive attractions and heart-pounding rides, The Holy Land Experience offered guests a heart-changing message of hope and peace.

The Bible-themed family park featured reenactments of Jesus’s resurrection, a scale miniature model of the city of Jerusalem in the first century, the Scriptorium Museum, which showcased the Van Kampen Collection of Biblical artifacts, including ancient Bible scrolls, manuscripts, and early printed editions of the Bible, as well as a replica of a Gutenberg printing press. The Holy Land Experience also featured an animatronic likeness of the 14th-century Bible translator John Wycliffe.

In 2007, Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) acquired The Holy Land Experience and began renovating the park to include the construction of the Church of All Nations auditorium, which held seating for 2,000 guests, the creation of a state-of-the-art theater in which live theatrical and musical performances took place, the development of the Smile of a Child Adventure Land area, and the construction of several restaurants, shops, and more.

In 2021, however, after 14 years of operations under TBN’s leadership and 20 years of operations in the state of Florida, the 14-acre theme park was sold to AdventHealth Services.

TBN announced the land had sold, stating, “After fourteen years of operation and millions of visitors to the park, TBN sold the property in 2021 during the COVID pandemic to Advent Health Services, whose mission is ‘To extend the healing ministry of Christ’ in order to better serve the greater Orlando area with healthcare.”

On April 28, demolition crews arrived to begin dismantling and demolishing the now-closed theme park, which included several large structures, including the massive coliseum called “The Church for All Nations,” which could be seen from the interstate.

coliseum at holy land experience in orlando florida

Credit: Flickr/VinceFL

One of the last structures to be removed was the coliseum. The photo below, dated May 31, shows the partial demolition of the coliseum.

Image

Credit: Bioreconstruct, May 31, 2023

As the demolition project is extremely complex, work on the project continues, though from photos of the demolition’s progress, the project looks to be nearing completion. This week, the massive coliseum, which seats more than 2,000 people, was finally taken down, as seen in the photo below, leaving a huge void where the iconic structure once stood as a beacon to visitors in the city.

holy land experience demolition

As of this week, the iconic Coliseum at the Holy Land Experience is gone. (Aerial photo from Sky 6 in Orlando, June 12, 2023)

AdventHealth plans to build a brand-new medical facility where the Holy Land Experience once stood.

About Becky Burkett

Becky's from the Lone Star State and has been writing since she was 10 and encountered her first Disney Park when she was 11. It was love at first Main Street Electrical Parade. Joy is blank lined journals, 0.7 mm pens, and all things Walt, Woody and Buzz, PIXAR, Imagineering, Sleeping Beauty (make it blue!), Disney Parks history and EPCOT. At Disney World, you'll find her croonin' with the birdies at the Enchanted Tiki Room or hangin' with Woody and the gang at Toy Story Land. If you can dream, you really can do it!