Welcome to one of the most charismatic, historic, romantic, enchanting and now the voted one of the “Prettiest” cities in the world, by Forbes Magazine!
This is home of some of the hottest green and red chile, piñon trees and nuts, friends and family. Our ancient city goes back beyond our own 400th birthday which we celebrate this year!
Love and Romance is especially strong this year of celebration. Considering that these are the last cold and cozy nights of the spring of 2010 to cozy up and start yourself a crackling fire of our special blend of pinion and cedar woods, pop open a bottle of wine for any of our award winning producing wineries from the surrounding area and enjoy an day or evening outing with your significant other.
I have put together a few dating ideas for those living or just plain visiting Santa Fe and need a few great, unforgettable ideas to help you out for those “Special” date nights! Plus, this is really just a helpful tool for the guys!
1st up The Santa Fe Church Walking Tour:
Take that special someone on a tour of some very famous churches which populate our city!
We’ll start the tour with the oldest church in the city!
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SAN MIGUEL’S MISSION (THE OLDEST)
San Miguel’s Mission Church is on property of the ancient part of Santa Fe! The Church was built between 1610 and and 1628. It is the oldest church still in use in the United States, this simple adobe structure was built by the Tlaxcalan Indians. of Mexico. This ground. all around you, at this point was the original part of Santa Fe, before the Spanish arrived. To the right of the church and behind it was a cemetery, where the state building are now!
San Miguel has seen a lot of good and bad in his 400 years of existent! Notably the most damage was during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 when the Pueblo Indians revolted against the Spanish and Mexican Indians and they would eventually burn down the roof and killing families trying to get out of harms way! Through it’ trials and tribulations it is still standing and still in continual use! Mass is still said in the chapel!
Please visit inside and get a true feeling of life back then in the Wild West! This is truly one of my favorite places to visit!
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LORETTO CHAPEL (THE MOST FAMOUS)
Next, we will walk down the original Santa Fe Trail towards the Plaza (please do not call it the square!!) to the most famous of our churches in town, The Loretto Chapel.
The Loretto Chapel and it’s story of the World Famous Spiral Staircase is an amazing accomplishment and one of my favorite stories of all time! The Loretto Chapel was built for the Sisters of the Loretto Academy (from Loretto, Kentucky) for helping Archbishop Lamy get education and catholic religion organized in the mid 1800′s. Archbishop Lamy, being of French decent, encouraged the Sister’s to use the architect and son, who too was from Paris and who had worked on the renovations of Sainte Chapelle in Paris http://sainte-chapelle.monuments-nationaux.fr/ (which this gothic chapel is 1/3 it’s original size to that of the one in Paris), who was helping with the building of what is now St. Francis Cathedral.
Legend goes that when they finished the church they actually forgot to build a stair case up to the choir loft, not sure if funds fell sort but the nun’s were in a dilemma. Having been told that they would have to build a traditional stair case they would lose half a row of seats. Not accepting that as an option, they relied on what they knew best. The power of prayer! Said to have started a nine day novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. Upon completion of the novena, that day or the day after a stranger rode in on the Old Santa Fe Trail by the name of José. Offering his services to God and in good faith with the nuns he begins his project. It is said that all he had was hammer (mallet), saw and a t-square. They say it had a curtain up while he worked and they did see him soaking wood ( which would explain the curvature of the staircase). Taking the carpenter 6 months, his masterpiece was complete. With a few sister’s in the chapel completing prayer he offered them their 1st glimpse at the staircase. Rushing with joy to find Mother Superior, they left the carpenter to pack his tools. By the time they all arrived back to the chapel, the carpenter had disappeared. Leaving the Sister’s of Loretto to believe that he was the answer to their novena and that St. Joseph himself came and built this amazing structure.
The staircase: makes 2.14 complete circles. There is NO center support. It at attaches from the floor to the loft. There are 33 steps (said to reflect the years of life Jesus had on Earth). The wood is of a rare type, nothing from the surrounding area! When the school and the convent closed down back in the the late 60′s, that is when it was found out that there is not one piece of metal used in the construction of the staircase. Leaving countless, architects, engineers and master craftsman baffled!
When you view the staircase remember that the Sisters used the staircase for 60 years with out a handrail. Yikes!
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ST. FRANCIS BASILICA (The Largest)
The crowning achievement of Archbishop Lamy’s church construction in New Mexico, the Saint Francis Cathedral was built between 1869 and 1886 and designed in the French Romanesque Revival style.
Although its design contrasts the surrounding adobe buildings, the cathedral remains one of Santa Fe’s most celebrated landmarks. Built on the site of a church that was destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and replacing a later adobe church called La Parroquia, the Saint Francis Cathedral was created with stone from local quarries.
Portions of La Parroquia remain in the form of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, which houses a wooden statue of the Virgin known as Our Lady of Peace. The statue was first brought to Santa Fe in 1625 and was returned to the city by the armies of Don Diego de Vargas during the re-conquest of 1692.
In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI officially elevated the church to the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
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Santuario de Guadalupe
The Santuario has a very significant role in the religious, cultural, and history of Santa Fe. It is the oldest and still-standing church that is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States and Canada. It stands at the end of the famous Camino Real, the main route from Mexico City via Chihuahua to the Southwest.
Our ancestors came through this route and with them the Franciscan friars who ministered to them and sowed the seed of Christian faith and the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Southwest.
Colonists from Mexico in the 17th and 18th centuries brought devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe with them. The first church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a tiny adobe structure on the banks of the Santa Fe River was built as a shrine to Our Lady of the New World. Information fixes the date as 1777. At the time of its construction, the little adobe church was a shrine only, not a parish.
In 1817, Don Juan Butista Ladron del Niño de Guevara made a visitation to Santa Fe. Records show that the Guadalupe Chapel was used to help serve the needs of the (Cathedral) parish on occasion. At the time of the visit, the church was not in good repair. Nine years later, in 1826, when Vicar Fernandez San Vicente, the Vicar-General of the Diocese of Durango, visited Santa Fe, he inspected the church and found it to be in such a bad state of repair that it was not considered fit for use as a house of God.
On July 20, 1881, Father Defouri was appointed pastor of the English-speaking people in Santa Fe. Soon after his arrival, Archbishop Lamy gave him the care of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Father Defouri wrote of this assignment:
“On the 15th of July 1881, the Most Rev. J.B. Lamy, Archbishop of Santa Fe wrote to me in Denver, where I was for a year: “If you are free and can come to Santa Fe, you will do me a favor. I appoint you the successor of Father Truchard. You will be Vicar General for the English of the Diocese, my private Secretary, and you will have charge of the few English-speaking people of Santa Fe, saying mass and preaching for them on Sundays.” He accepted the offer and on the first of August, gave up his assignment in Denver and came here. Fr. DeFouri at once took charge of his office, and lodging at the Archbishop’s residence.
“Soon after my arrival, his Grace told me he would give the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the American congregation. This Church had been closed for years, mass being said in it only a few times every year. We commenced speaking of the affair and on the first Sunday in October we held the first formal business meeting in the office of D. Catanach and Co., at the of corner Shelby and Water Streets. A subscription list was opened at once, with three hundred dollars being subscribed. Collectors were appointed at the same meeting and the work was begun.”
As pastor, Father Defouri made needed repairs. A new cupola was added to replace the old roof which had given out and this somewhat changed the original appearance of the church. He installed a bell weighing 575 pounds, which was blessed by the Very Rev. P. Eguillion, Vicar General, in the name of Our Lady of Guadalupe, at ceremonies on March 23, 1884. Another bell was blessed by the Most Rev. Archbishop Placidus L. Chappelle in 1896. It was dedicated in honor of the Holy Family.
