The oldest capital city in the country, Santa Fe was founded in the winter of 1609-10, 10 years before the English pilgrims established Plymouth Colony, in Massachusetts. Don Juan Peralta, third governor of New Mexico, built a small settlement here as the northernmost outpost in a series of forts and missions designed to convert the Pueblo Indians to Catholicism.
Originally a simple adobe fort and central plaza, La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis (The Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi), as the town was first known, was intended to provide protection for the Spanish missionaries and a headquarters for the province's political and military leaders; 60 of New Mexico's governors would eventually rule from the fortress, which became known as the "Palace of the Governors."
By the mid-17th century, an estimated 14,000 Indians had been converted to Christianity, although many preferred to maintain their non-Christian beliefs. The Spanish, infamously intolerant of those unwilling to convert, burned kivas and ceremonial objects and often flogged, hanged and otherwise tortured Indians unwilling to accept the new religion.
In August, 1680, the Indians rebelled. Led by the an Juan Indian Medicine Man Pope, who had been flogged for practicing "witchcraft," the northern Pueblo tribes united to run the Spanish out. Beginning in the outlying areas, the Indians killed missionaries and settlers, burned farms and churches, then besieged Santa Fe.
Although the Spanish held out for several days, they eventually retreated, following the Rio Grande south to El Paso, picking up along the way converted Pueblo Indians. Meanwhile, the Palace of Governors had been burned and many important documents destroyed. One the Spanish were gone, the Indians moved into Santa Fe.
Pope took up residence in the Palace and demolished anything related, however remotely, to the Spanish and Catholicism - statues, crosses, and vineyards. Soon, though, bickering broke out among the various Pueblo tribes and many of the Indians returned to their own pueblos - to Taos, San Juan, Santa Clara, and the others.
Indian occupation of Santa Fe lasted about 12 years. In 1691, the new governor, Don Diego de Vargas Zapata y Lujan Once de Leon y Contreras, armed with support from the Spanish crown, arrived in El Paso and began working his way north toward Santa Fe. Upon arriving, de Vargas took the Palace of the Governors by force, and afterwards executed about 70 Indians and enslaved 400 others.
By 1692, de Vargas had reconquered not only the capital but most of the surrounding pueblos as well, and the Pueblo Revolt, still considered the most organized and successful Indian uprising in the New World, was over.
For the next 100 years, the Spanish continued to occupy Santa Fe and rule New Mexico, discouraging as much as possible integration with the increasing number of North American settlers arriving in the Southwest. In the winter of 1805-6, a small group of explorers led by Zebulon Pike under orders from Thomas Jefferson, was caught trespassing along the headwaters of the Rio Grande and promptly arrested. Pike and his men were sent to Durango, Mexico, and later released.
In 1821, though, Mexico won its independence from Spain, and Santa Feans began to demand goods that American traders were transporting across the continent. That same year a group of Mexican soldiers encountered several Missourians trading with Plains Indians north and east of Santa Fe.
The Americans followed the Mexicans back to Santa Fe, thus pioneering the Santa Fe Trail, and the capital was finally opened up to trade from the east. New Mexico eventually became U.S. territory by 1851, followed by statehood in 1912.
State Capitol Built in 1966 and modeled after a Pueblo Indian zia, it symbolizes the Circle of Life: the four winds, four seasons, four directions, and four sacred obligations. It is the only round capitol building in America, and one of the only ones which does not resemble the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
San Miguel Chapel (Old Santa Fe Trail & De Vargas) claims to be the oldest mission in the United States and dates from Santa Fe's founding in 1610, although it was nearly destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt and rebuilt in 1710. It was built as a place of worship for the Tlaxcalan Indians whom the Spanish brought with them from Mexico.
Between 1710 and 1760, the chapel was used by the military, and in the late 19th century Archbishop Lamay's Christian Brothers, whose academy was located next door, used the mission as their place of worship. Inside are many fine examples for New Mexican religious art and Christian icons, including a statue of St. Michael from the 17th century and buffalo and deer-hide paintings of Jesus. The bell, displayed in the anteroom, was made in Spain in 1312 and brought to New Mexico in the 1800s.
Oldest House in the U.S. is probably the oldest house in Santa Fe, but not in the U.S.A. This Spanish style house was built around an earlier Indian dwelling on this site that dates back more than 800 years. But it is not the oldest Indian house in the United States either. Pueblo houses at Acoma Pueblo and Old Oraibi in Hopiland are older.
The Spanish portion is thought by some to have been added before 1628. Yet tree ring specimens taken from the oldest Spanish section only date back to 1740-67. So it is not the oldest European house still standing in America since one house in St. Augustine, FL has been reliably dated to 1727. Regardless of the unsubstantiated claims, this is truly one of the oldest buildings in the United States and should not be missed.
Loretto Chapel (211 Old Santa Fe Trail), or more properly called "The Chapel of our Lady of Light," was modeled after Paris' Sainte Chapelle and was built in 1878 for the Sisters of Loretto, six women Archibishop Lamay had brought with him to Santa Fe. Near the end of the chapel's construction, the principal architect was killed by Lamay's nephew, John, who thought that the builder had designs on his wife. Thus, building came to a halt and the Sisters of Loretto were left with a chapel without a staircase to the choir loft.
By all indications, there was not enough room for a conventional stairway. So the Sisters prayed to St. Joseph for a solution. In answer to their prayers, so the legend goes, a carpenter appeared on day. In six months he constructed from wood a 23 foot high spiral staircase that made two complete turns and had thirty three steps, with no visible sign of support and using only wooden pegs to secure it. The stranger disappeared as soon as the job was done, and was neither paid, thanked, nor seen again by the Sisters. His work has been called the "Miraculous Staircase" and is often attribute to St. Joseph.
La Fonda Hotel (100 E San Francisco) has often been called the "inn at the End of the Trail," because it marked the terminus of the Santa Fe Trail. When Captain William Becknell and his trading expedition from Missouri pioneered the trail and arrived in Santa Fe in 1821, they found an inn - a fonda - on this site. With a boom in the number of trappers, traders and merchants who began flocking to Santa Fe, a saloon and casino were added.
It is said that William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, worked at La Fonda for a time washing dishes.
Cathedral of Saint Francis of Assis was built from 1869-1886 on the site of the original mission church, Our Lady of Assumption, which was built in 1610 and badly damaged in the Pueblo Revolt 70 years later. The site had been the location of several previous churches or parroquias. During the almost 20 years it took to construct the present building, services in the old church continued without interruption as the new building was built around it.
The old building was finally taken down section by section as the new building was being completed. Many of its adobe bricks were used in constructing the north walls of the new church. One small chapel of the early church, dating to 1714, remains intact. There you may see America's oldest Christian religious statue, the famous figure carved from willow wood, La Conquistadora. The paintings surrounding the statue are part of a "reredos," or a Spanish mural.
Designed by Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamay and a team of French architects, the Romanesque-style church stands in stark contrast to the pueblo style buildings surrounding it. Bishop Lamay is buried beneath the main altar.
The Palace of the Governors (N side of the Plaza on Palace Ave) was built in 1610 as the original Santa Fe capital, and is the oldest public building in the United States. It has been a seat of government for the Spanish (1610-1680 and 1692-1821), the Pueblo Indians (1680-1692), for Mexico (1821-1846) and for the United States (1846-present). The Confederacy held it briefly in 1862. It has been occupied over the years by Mexican soldiers, Indian insurgents, American military, and Governor Lew Wallace, who wrote Ben Hurr here.