Vacation, Day 6
Apr. 28th, 2008 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragoness_eSorry for the huge delay in posting these pictures. Things have been hectic since getting home. So, on our 6th day of travel, Thursday, March 20th, we crossed New Mexico. Starting from Gallup, NM in the morning, we diverted up to Santa Fe to take in the ancient mission churches and modern art galleries there, then cut down the back roads across eastern New Mexico ranch lands to Tucumcari, where we stopped for the night.
Santa Fe architecture is distinctive. They must have a building code requirement that all buildings will fit in historically, because ALL the buildings in Santa Fe are built and painted to look like they were constructed of mud-adobe (even if they're actually painted concrete).
Once a mission, now a hotel/shopping center
This place is typical of Santa Fe architecture. It also happens to be the sight of the former Sisters of San Loretto convent and mission, and the chapel is still standing around the other side of the building. Pictures of that later.
We came to town to see the Church of San Miguel. On the way there, we walked through the arts district, full of galleries, gift shops and little cafes.
Santa Fe street
See what I mean about the architecture? That's Steve & Becky on the left.
House/shop decorated for Easter
Those are candles in paper-bag lamps along the roof parapet. Contrast the Old West look with the satellite dish on top.
Church of San Miguel
The Church of San Miguel is the oldest still-standing church in the United States.
Church Interior, looking toward altar
Close-up of Altar Piece
Interior, looking from altar toward entrance
Down the street a few blocks was the aforementioned Chapel of San Loretto, famed for the 'miraculous' spiral staircase built by a mystery carpenter who charged no fees and never gave his name about a century ago.
Spiral Staircase of San Loretto
Viewed up close, it is a very fine piece of carpentry work, carefully shaped and pegged together so as to support itself with no external frame or central column. Whoever built it was a really skilled carpenter and builder. Legend identifies the mystery carpenter with St. Joseph, patron saint of carpenters and of that chapel.
Altar of San Loretto
San Loretto is a much fancier chapel in the Spanish Catholic style than the simple mission church of San Miguel. Everything is much more elaborately decorated.
Stained glass window in San Loretto
There are several very beautiful stained glass windows in the chapel as well.
Rose window over the entrance
Station VII: Jesus Falls the Second Time
Like all Catholic churches, the chapel had the Stations of the Cross along the walls--a set of didactic sculptures depicting the various stages of the Passion of Christ. The San Miguel mission had very simple ones; San Loretto had elaborately detailed and painted stations. Modern churches tend to have simple ones as well, in modern art styles. I personally prefer the old-fashioned, detailed ones; if you are going to have didactic art, it should show enough detail to be, well, didactic.
View toward the chapel entrance
This view shows the spiral staircase, the choir loft it leads to, the entrance, the stained glass above the entrance, and the rose window above that.
In between viewing old Spanish chapels, we shopped at some of the galleries, which were stocked with beautiful Native American pottery and jewelry. Some of the pottery just overwhelmed me with its beauty. The place with the most beautiful pieces did not allow photographs, but another place, in the shopping mall just outside the Chapel of San Loretto, happily gave me permission to take pictures of the pottery and anything else.
Note that this is all modern pottery by native artists, not ancient pottery. Some of these styles were never known in ancient or traditional times.
Pueblo pottery
This pottery art (the black and white with decorations) is Pueblo, and I'll eventually remember which Pueblo tribe.
More Pueblo
Navajo blackware
Navajo greenware
This polished blackware is by Navajo artists.
Becky with Bison
The shop also has a bison head, which the nice lady that gave me permission to take pictures told me was the 'most-photographed' object in the store. So, naturally, we had to take pictures of it.
This Way to Mora
On the way out of Santa Fe, we headed partway up the road toward Mora, New Mexico. Louis L'Amour fans will remember Mora as the town where Orrin and Tyrel Sackett settled down. Fans of the "McCloud" TV-movie mystery series from back in the 70s might remember that Marshal McCloud was from Taos, New Mexico.
Eastern New Mexico Ranchland
...is really flat. It's dry, grassy, and flat, and dotted with windmill-pumped water tanks for livestock. We saw some cowboys herding cattle, but I didn't have my camera in hand at the time.
Down the Canadian escarpment
From the high grazelands, the land plunges down off the Canadian Escarpment (named for the Canadian River, which flows nearby) down to lower, hotter grazelands. The view down the narrow, winding mountain road is impressive.
Route 66, Tucumcari, New Mexico
Once again, we drove down Old Route 66 through a western town and to our hotel.
Santa Fe architecture is distinctive. They must have a building code requirement that all buildings will fit in historically, because ALL the buildings in Santa Fe are built and painted to look like they were constructed of mud-adobe (even if they're actually painted concrete).
Once a mission, now a hotel/shopping center
This place is typical of Santa Fe architecture. It also happens to be the sight of the former Sisters of San Loretto convent and mission, and the chapel is still standing around the other side of the building. Pictures of that later.
We came to town to see the Church of San Miguel. On the way there, we walked through the arts district, full of galleries, gift shops and little cafes.
Santa Fe street
See what I mean about the architecture? That's Steve & Becky on the left.
House/shop decorated for Easter
Those are candles in paper-bag lamps along the roof parapet. Contrast the Old West look with the satellite dish on top.
Church of San Miguel
The Church of San Miguel is the oldest still-standing church in the United States.
Church Interior, looking toward altar
Close-up of Altar Piece
Interior, looking from altar toward entrance
Down the street a few blocks was the aforementioned Chapel of San Loretto, famed for the 'miraculous' spiral staircase built by a mystery carpenter who charged no fees and never gave his name about a century ago.
Spiral Staircase of San Loretto
Viewed up close, it is a very fine piece of carpentry work, carefully shaped and pegged together so as to support itself with no external frame or central column. Whoever built it was a really skilled carpenter and builder. Legend identifies the mystery carpenter with St. Joseph, patron saint of carpenters and of that chapel.
Altar of San Loretto
San Loretto is a much fancier chapel in the Spanish Catholic style than the simple mission church of San Miguel. Everything is much more elaborately decorated.
Stained glass window in San Loretto
There are several very beautiful stained glass windows in the chapel as well.
Rose window over the entrance
Station VII: Jesus Falls the Second Time
Like all Catholic churches, the chapel had the Stations of the Cross along the walls--a set of didactic sculptures depicting the various stages of the Passion of Christ. The San Miguel mission had very simple ones; San Loretto had elaborately detailed and painted stations. Modern churches tend to have simple ones as well, in modern art styles. I personally prefer the old-fashioned, detailed ones; if you are going to have didactic art, it should show enough detail to be, well, didactic.
View toward the chapel entrance
This view shows the spiral staircase, the choir loft it leads to, the entrance, the stained glass above the entrance, and the rose window above that.
In between viewing old Spanish chapels, we shopped at some of the galleries, which were stocked with beautiful Native American pottery and jewelry. Some of the pottery just overwhelmed me with its beauty. The place with the most beautiful pieces did not allow photographs, but another place, in the shopping mall just outside the Chapel of San Loretto, happily gave me permission to take pictures of the pottery and anything else.
Note that this is all modern pottery by native artists, not ancient pottery. Some of these styles were never known in ancient or traditional times.
Pueblo pottery
This pottery art (the black and white with decorations) is Pueblo, and I'll eventually remember which Pueblo tribe.
More Pueblo
Navajo blackware
Navajo greenware
This polished blackware is by Navajo artists.
Becky with Bison
The shop also has a bison head, which the nice lady that gave me permission to take pictures told me was the 'most-photographed' object in the store. So, naturally, we had to take pictures of it.
This Way to Mora
On the way out of Santa Fe, we headed partway up the road toward Mora, New Mexico. Louis L'Amour fans will remember Mora as the town where Orrin and Tyrel Sackett settled down. Fans of the "McCloud" TV-movie mystery series from back in the 70s might remember that Marshal McCloud was from Taos, New Mexico.
Eastern New Mexico Ranchland
...is really flat. It's dry, grassy, and flat, and dotted with windmill-pumped water tanks for livestock. We saw some cowboys herding cattle, but I didn't have my camera in hand at the time.
Down the Canadian escarpment
From the high grazelands, the land plunges down off the Canadian Escarpment (named for the Canadian River, which flows nearby) down to lower, hotter grazelands. The view down the narrow, winding mountain road is impressive.
Route 66, Tucumcari, New Mexico
Once again, we drove down Old Route 66 through a western town and to our hotel.
