Moon Southwest Road Trip: Las Vegas, Zion & Bryce, Monument Valley, Santa Fe & Taos, and the Grand Canyon (Moon Handbooks) by Hull Tim

Author:Hull, Tim [Hull, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avalon Publishing
Published: 2016-07-04T16:00:00+00:00

As at the history museum, Friday evenings (5pm-8pm) are free admission in summer; from November to April, only the first Friday of the month is free. Free docent-led tours around the museum run daily at 10:30am and 2pm. The museum also runs art-themed walking tours ($10) around the city center at 10am Mondays; June through August, they also run Fridays at 10am.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Santa Fe’s showpiece Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi (131 Cathedral Pl., 505/982-5619, www.cbsfa.org , 9:30am-4:30pm Mon.-Sat., free), visible from the plaza at the end of East San Francisco Street, was built over some 15 years in the late 19th century, by the domineering Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy. For more than three decades, the Frenchman struggled to “elevate” the city to European standards, and his folly is exemplified in this grandiose cathedral.

Lamy was shocked by the locals’ religious practices, as the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe was already well established, and the Penitente brotherhood was performing public self-flagellation. He also disliked their aesthetics. How could a person possibly reach heaven while praying on a dirt floor inside a building made of mud? Lamy took one look at the tiny adobe church dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi, which had stood for 170 years, and decided he could do better. Construction on his Romanesque revival St. Francis Cathedral began in 1869, under the direction of architects and craftsmen from Europe. They used the old church as a frame for the new stone structure, then demolished all of the adobe, save for a small side chapel. Lamy ran short of cash, however—hence the stumpy aspect of the cathedral’s facade, which should be topped with spires.

Inside is all Gothic-inspired light and space and glowing stained-glass windows, with a gilt altar screen installed in 1987, for the centennial of the building’s dedication. It features primarily New World saints, such as Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th-century Mohawk woman beatified in 1980 and canonized in 2012 (her statue also stands outside the cathedral). She is depicted with a turtle, representing her membership in the Turtle Clan.

New Mexico Culture Pass

A museum pass ($25) good for 12 months grants onetime access to all of the state-run museums and historic sites. This includes four Santa Fe institutions—the New Mexico Museum of Art, the New Mexico History Museum, the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, and the Museum of International Folk Art—as well as two in Albuquerque (the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the natural history museum), and the Coronado and Jemez historic sites. It also covers attractions farther afield, in Las Cruces, Alamogordo, and more—great if you’re a state resident or you’re already planning a longer return visit within the year.

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