Sights in Santa Fe
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Loretto Chapel
The gothic chapel is modeled on St Chapelle in Paris, and was built between 1873 and 1878 for the Sisters of Loretto, the first nuns to come to New Mexico. St Chapelle has a circular stone staircase, but when the Loretto Chapel was being constructed, no local stonemasons were skilled enough to build one and the young architect didn’t know how to build one of wood. The nuns prayed for help and a mysterious traveling carpenter, whom the nuns believed afterward to be St Joseph, arrived. He built what is known as the Miraculous Staircase, a wooden spiral staircase with two complete 360-degree turns and no central or visible support. He left without charging for his labors and…
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Georgia O'keeffe Museum
Possessing the world's largest collection of her work, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum features the artist's paintings of flowers, bleached skulls and adobe architecture. Tours of O'Keeffe's house require advance reservations.
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Bataan Memorial Military Museum & Library
A labor of both love and war, the Bataan Memorial Military Museum & Library exhibits an unusual collection of military mementoes. It began in 1947 as a display in the state capitol honoring the 'Battling Bastards of Bataan.' Today the museum occupies the former home base of the NM 200th Coast Artillery, captured when the Japanese invaded the Philippines in 1942, and the very last unit to surrender.
Some 70,000 POWs, most Filipino, were forced to walk the brutal, 75-mile Bataan Death March. Of 1800 mostly Hispanic New Mexicans stationed in Bataan, only 900 returned. In addition to exhibits that tell their story, interesting examples of psychological-warfare leaflets from …
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Rancho de las Golondrinas
About 15 miles south of downtown Santa Fe, in the town of La Cienega, Rancho de las Golondrinas is a grassy oasis that has been a popular overnight for weary travelers for at least 10,000 years, and many of the historic structures housing this living-history museum were built by Spanish explorers who fortified the area in 1625. The 200-acre preserve has rescued dozens more original Spanish buildings from the bulldozers of progress and brought them from all over the Southwest for respectful renovation. Volunteers use centuries-old equipment to re-create colonial life, and blacksmiths, weavers and lots of cuddly livestock - including rare Churro sheep sheared annually at th…
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Historic Line Camp Gallery & Huichol Indian Museum
About 15 miles north of Santa Fe, the one-of-a-kind Historic Line Camp Gallery & Huichol Indian Museum is a gift shop and museum that claims the largest collection of Huichol Indian art in North America: Nearika, unbroken strands of colorful yarn coiled into tales of life and death, and chaquira, sculptures of animals covered in tiny, obsessively patterned beads, are said to depict the understandably wild dreams of the 'People of Peyote.'
Westerners didn't encounter the tribe, which lives in a remote region of the Sierra Madre, until the 1930s. The small museum has a video as well as artifacts, including clothing, musical instruments, old photos and art, but the most impr…
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Santuario de Guadalupe
The adobe church is the oldest extant shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the poor in Mexico. It was constructed between 1776 and 1796 near the end of the Camino Real, a 1500-mile trading route from Mexico that ended in Santa Fe. There have been several additions and renovations since. The oil-on-canvas Spanish baroque retablo (altar painting) inside the chapel was painted in Mexico in 1783 by José de Alzíbar. For the trip to Santa Fe, the painting had to be taken apart and transported up the Camino Real in pieces on mule back. Look closely to see the seams where the painting was put back together.
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Indian Arts Research Center
Make reservations to tour the vaulted collection at the Indian Arts Research Center. The collection consists of more than 11,000 Native American artifacts, much of it pre-colonial, including textiles, baskets, jewelry and lots of pottery. It's not really displayed for public consumption, which makes the tour through the climate-controlled collection that much more interesting; you'll be surrounded by shelves packed with remnants of a time long past. The gift shop (08:00-noon & 13:00-17:00) has an outstanding selection of collection-related books by associates, faculty members and others.
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Museum of International Folk Art
Part of a collection of four very different museums. On Museum Hill, the Museum of International Folk Art houses more than 100,000 objects from more than 100 countries and is arguably the best museum in Santa Fe. The exhibits aren’t simplistically arranged behind glass cases; the historical and cultural information is concise and thorough; and a festive feel permeates the rooms. The Hispanic wing displays religious art, tin work, jewelry and textiles from northern New Mexico and throughout the Spanish colonial empire, dating from the 1600s to the present.
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Historic Santa Fe Foundation
On the site of El Zagúan, an expansive territorial-style mansion purchased in 1849 by Anglo entrepreneur James Johnson, the Historic Santa Fe Foundation is an unassuming little museum on Canyon Rd, with a few interesting exhibits - old photos, potsherds and whatnot. The lovely gardens outside are also worth a look. Create your own walking or driving tour of Santa Fe's historic best by consulting the foundation's registry (available on-site and on the website) of more than 70 Santa Fe buildings considered worthy of historical preservation. Each is marked by a bronze plaque.
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El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe
In a huge warehouse at the developing Santa Fe Railyard site, the kid-friendly El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe is an all-in-one museum, gallery, performance space and community arts center designed for local Hispanic youth. With exhibits by internationally known artists and others still in grade school, plus all manner of displays geared toward home-schooled kids, this is a great place to introduce your own children to la cultura Nuevomexicana. The huge warehouse space hosts art openings, live music and theater. The Santa Fe Farmers Market is also ensconced here in the winter.
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Palace of the Governors
Part of a collection of four very different museum. The Palace of the Governors is one of the oldest public buildings in the country. Built in 1610 by Spanish officials, it housed thousands of villagers when the Indians revolted in 1680 and was home to the territorial governors after 1846. Since 1909 the building has been a museum, with more than 17,000 historical objects reflecting Santa Fe’s Indian, Spanish, Mexican and American heritage. Volunteers lead free, highly recommended palace tours throughout the day; call for exact times.
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Museum of Fine Arts
Part of a collection of four very different museums. The Museum of Fine Arts features works by regional artists and sponsors regular gallery talks and slide lectures. It was built in 1918, and the architecture is an excellent example of the original Santa Fe–style adobe. With more than 20,000 pieces – including collections of the Taos Society of Artists, Santa Fe Society of Artists and other legendary collectives – it’s a who’s who of the geniuses who put this dusty town on par with Paris and New York.
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Shidoni Foundry
Five miles north of Santa Fe in Tesuque, the Shidoni Foundry is an 8-acre apple orchard devoted to bronze sculptures. Founded in 1971, it has evolved into a world-renowned fine art casting facility and showplace. A gallery hosts changing exhibits, and there is a year-round outdoor sculpture garden on the lawn. Every Saturday, you can watch 2000°F molten bronze being poured into ceramic shell molds, one of several steps in the complex lost-wax casting technique.
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Museum of Indian Arts & Culture
Part of a collection of four very different museums. The Museum of Indian Arts & Culture opened in 1987 to display artifacts unearthed by the Laboratory of Anthropology, which must confirm that any proposed building site in New Mexico is not historically significant. Since 1931 it has collected over 50,000 artifacts. Rotating exhibits explore the historical and contemporary lives of the Pueblo, Navajo and Apache cultures.
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Museum of New Mexico
The Museum of New Mexico, which celebrated its centennial in 2009, administers four museums around town. On the plaza, the adobe Palace of the Governors - dating from the 1600s - displays a handful of regional relics. Inside, you can press handprints on a mock cliff wall to hear Native American stories or stop by a 1950s-era office to learn 'classified' info about the once-secret city of Los Alamos.
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Santa Fe Community College Planetarium
The stars shine brightly in Santa Fe, thanks to the high altitude and arid climate, so take advantage at the Santa Fe Community College Planetarium , which offers indoor programs and outdoor tours of the skies outside after dark. Programs and times vary, so call ahead. Between June and November, reservations are required for various 20:00 presentations, many linking ancient Native American cultures with modern astronomy.
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San Miguel Mission
The original construction of this mission was started in 1625, and it served as a mission church for the Spanish settlers’ Tlaxcalan Indian servants, who had been brought from Mexico. Though considered the oldest church in the United States, much of the original building was destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and it was rebuilt in 1710, with new walls added to what remained.
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Site Santa Fe
An enormous, whitewashed space, the 8000-sq-ft SITE Santa Fe is a nonprofit art museum dedicated to presenting world-class contemporary art to the community. From radical installation pieces to cutting-edge multimedia exhibitions, this hybrid museum-gallery takes art to the next level. It also hosts wine-splashed openings, artist talks, movie screenings and performances of all kinds.
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Portal Program
The Portal Program allows artisans with tribal enrollment to sell jewelry and art in front of the palace. It's a tradition that began in the 1880s, when Tesuque artisans began meeting the train with all manner of wares; today more than 1000 members representing almost every New Mexico tribe exhibit here at various times, alternating schedules to fill nearly 80 spaces beneath the vigas each morning.
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Cowgirl Hall of Fame
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Institute of American Indian Arts Museum
Primarily showing work by students and faculty of the esteemed four-year Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, this place also features the finest offerings of Native American artists from tribes across the US. It’s an excellent place to see beautiful art and understand its role in Native American culture.
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St Francis Auditorium
The Museum of Fine Arts hosts free concerts by the Santa Fe Community Orchestra (%466-2516; www.sfco.org) and others from July through August in St Francis Auditorium , an elegant venue designed to look like the interior of a Spanish mission, where you can enjoy classical music and new works by New Mexico composers.
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Cross of the Martyrs
More a quick climb than a religious shrine, the Cross of the Martyrs was erected to commemorate the 21 Franciscan friars who lost their lives in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Historic plaques explain 400 years of Santa Fe history, and the view from the top really makes you appreciate those adobe-only laws.
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Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian
In 1937, Mary Cabot established the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, part of Museum Hill, to showcase Navajo ceremonial art. While its strength continues to be Navajo exhibits, it now includes contemporary Native American art and historical artifacts as well.
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State Capitol
The State Capitol, locally referred to as the Roundhouse, is the center of New Mexico’s government and was designed after the state symbol, the Zia sign. It also has one of the best (free) art collections in New Mexico. Self-guided tours are possible.
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