Just a block or two further we came to the plaza area which is a pedestrian friendly, park. It is surrounded for several blocks in each direction with shops, restaurants, and historical buildings.
We have apparently made it out of Mormon territory, as there is a real Catholic presence here!
The first picture below is the St. Francis of Assisi Basillica. The second one is said to be the oldest church in the United States-1610.
The two pictures below are taken of the Loretto Chapel. It too is very old and was the home of the Sisters of Loretto who came to Santa Fe to open a school. The school no longer exists and the sisters are no longer active here. The chapel is privately owned now. The most famous and unique thing about the chapel is its spiral staircase. As the story goes, there were no stairs up to the choir loft because men had used ladders. But the school was for girls and they sang in the choir and wanted stairs. Because the chapel is so small, traditional stairs would have taken up too much space, so the sisters prayed and prayed for a solution. Finally, an unknown carpenter appeared and spent 6 months building the marvelous spiral stairs. They are an engineering marvel as they have to central or side supports. He disappeared soon after the stairs were finished and never submitted any bill for his services. The original stairs had no railing, but everyone was afraid to walk up them, so railings were added later. Pretty cool.
We have had a nice dinner here in our villa using up some of the food we had left in our fridge in St. George. A couple glasses of wine have helped to get us pretty mellow. Bedtime is looking pretty good.
Hugs to Everyone.
Bob and Deb
No comments:
Post a Comment