February 10, 2011---Santa Fe, NM

When we came home from Santa Fe I was not feeling well. I was very tired and had gastric upset, so I am writing this on Saturday.

We drove from the park to Santa Fe. It was very scenic and we kept going up, up and more up. Later I read that Santa Fe is at 7000 feet. Our first goal was to find the Loretto Chapel. We put the name into our GPS and drove as it told us. Well, finally we were on a gravel road. Needless to say, we were not the right place. We met a young woman running down the hill. We ask her for info and she started laughing. She said the GPS had this wrong and we needed to drive to the end of the road and come back down the hill to the main road. This is the sign we saw when we came to the end of the road.  

As we reset our GPS we drove back to the city and passed many housing developments out in the desert. They were very low adobe homes which are in a very deep beige which blends right into the surroundings. These adobes are a mixture of the Spanish and Native Indians architecture. You see these types of homes everywhere in this area. (this is a tall house ==most of the adobes are one story)

The rest of the trip to Santa Fe was uneventful. When we got to the old town area our next problem was to find a parking place. There was no street parking available so we found a public lot. The area was were the state capital is located so they had quite a few parking lots. Finding a lot that was not full was our next issue. As we got out of the car Walt noticed that the car that came in the lot after us was from California with two young men is the car. As we started walking they followed us in the same direction. Finally I said do you know were your going and they responded they thought we knew were we were going. We talked a minute or two and then we went our separate directions. We were trying to find the plaza. But before we found the plaza we found The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. This church was for the Archbishop and it was of Mexican culture. The Stations were done by a painter from Mexico.  They had 15 stations instead of 14. The fifteenth one was a picture of the resurrection. The statues were primitive Mexican art carved from wood. It was a very unusual church.



View from the back to front alter

                                                                                            



15th Station







Main alter and note Blessed Virgin to the back of picture



After we left the church  we walked until we found the plaza. We asked a pedestrian if he knew of a good Mexican restaurant and he suggested a cafe just off the plaza. As we walked to the cafe we saw many Mexicans under a long porch which was over the stores. They had their wares spread on blankets waiting for someone to stop and buy their wares. We did not go over to them but went to the cafe.for lunch. It was a good place to eat and many locals walked in for some food to carry back to work.

 This is the Loretto Chapel and it was completed in 1878. Bishop Lamy of Santa Fe asked that the Sisters of Loretto, founded in Kentucky in 1812, to come to Santa Fe in 1852. In 1968 the Loretto was closed and the square block property was offered by the Sisters to Santa Fe Archdiocese, who declined the purchase. In 1971 the property was purchased by a limited partnership. Then in 1973 construction of the In at Loretto and the restoration of the Loretto Chapel began. They changed the Academy into a high end Inn.
The big attraction of the Loretto Chapel is the Miraculous Staircase. The chapel was built as was common in Europe.
Women were not allowed to sing in the 1800 European choirs, so the men would use ladders to ascent to the loft. It would be terrifying to the sisters who wore habits and to the girls who wore long dresses below the tops of their shoes to have to climb a twenty foot ladder. A regular staircase would take up seating space which was unacceptable. Being ladies of great faith, the sisters decided to seek a solution through prayer.



Main Altar in Loretto Chapel

 The sister had placed the construction of their chapel under the patronage of St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters and builders. So they did the only logical thing. They began a nine day novena to St. Joseph asking for his intervention. On the final day of prayer, an old, gray-haired, gray-bearded man came to the school; a carpenter who offered to build the needed staircase. He was hired and proceeded to go to work.
The staircase is reported to have taken from 6-8 months to finish and was completed without banisters or railings. There are no nails, screws, glue nor center support used in the staircase construction. There are, however, hundreds of square wooden pegs that are used with great precision and exceptional craftsmanship. This makes the "Floating" staircase.

The carpenter was never seen again after he built the staircase. Was this St. Joseph the Carpenter who built this amazing staircase?

The staircase is shown below:

After we left the Loretto we walked a while and found the San Miguel Church, the oldest church structure in the United States. The original adobe walls and altar were built by Tiarcalan Indians from Mexico under the direction of the Franciscan Padres in the year of 1610. It is known that the mission was built  with parts of an abandoned Pueblo dating back to 1100 and still existing on the site at the time of construction and incorporated into the church structure.  The pictures from the San Miguel Church are below.



San Miguel Church

                                                      



Main Altar-wooden statues



Place where Priest sat during confessions

                                                                     



Where the lay person sat for confession

After leaving San Migael we walked past the oldest house but it was not open at that time. It was a gift shop and cafe at this time. After walking a few long blocks and taking Walts idea of were the truck was parked. We suddenly rounded a corner and I could see were we had left the truck.

As we left Santa Fe Walt put an address for the railroad museum in the GPS. Well, we ended up in a housing development in the desert. It was interesting to see how each house was adobe and it had a high wall around each house. The garage was in the back of the house on a alley. The houses were only 5 to 6 feet apart. As we left the area we saw a Catholic Church and Walt took some pictures.

After leaving the church we visited the Santa Fe Quilting Store and headed home.

Long Day but very interesting



Santa Maria de  la PAZ Catholic Community