We really enjoy our short stop in La Veta (Short stop in La Veta, a cute little town...), but we still had something else to explore. We planned our first stop at Fort Garland, where we planned to turn onto Highway 159... It would have been easy to just drive straight to Taos, but... it wasn't what we wanted to do this time. This time we wanted to take some backroads and to see something that usually escapes the attention of travelers - some old adobe churches. And the first one was at Fort Garland.
Holy Family Catholic Church - 626 Beaubien Avenue Fort Garland, CO 81133
Set against the picturesque backdrop of Fort Garland, Colorado, the Holy Family Catholic Mission stands as a serene beacon of faith. This cherished landmark is noted for its stunning structure that exudes a sense of tranquility and a welcoming atmosphere. Though some travelers might find the doors closed past the usual visiting hours (sigh... yes... we also were unlucky ones), the mission's exterior beauty continues to garner admiration.
The church is not only a spiritual haven but also serves as a
pillar of support for the local community, offering aid to those in
need. Its aesthetic appeal and communal role make it a must-visit
destination for both worshippers and visitors seeking solace or
historical charm.
We left Fort Garland and stayed on the main road until we reached
San Luis, where we left the paved road and continued on county roads,
dusty and empty. We really wanted to see small towns as they were...
Iglesia de San Pablo y San Pedro - County Road 21 San Pedro, CO 81152
Located
in San Pedro in the San Luis Valley, Iglesia de San Pedro y San Pablo
(Church of St. Peter and St. Paul) is a Catholic church built in 1933–34
under the supervision of Father Onofre Martorell. The cruciform-plan
Territorial Adobe building continues to serve as an important community
center, with Mass celebrated in Spanish during the summer. In 2012 the
church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
On opposite sides of Culebra Creek in the San Luis Valley, the
closely connected communities of San Pedro and San Pablo were among the
first towns established by Hispano settlers moving north from New Mexico
in the early 1850s. The towns have always collaborated on space for
religious worship. As with other early Hispano towns in the San Luis
Valley, the towns took their name from the saints that the settlers
chose as their spiritual protectors. The current church is the third
built there. The first two were badly deteriorated and destroyed by
fire. In 1941 another fire struck the latest church but did not destroy
the building. Local workers Felix and Lucas Serna rebuilt the roof and
repaired the walls that summer.
With its cheery exterior of bright white stucco and blue trim,
Iglesia de San Pedro y San Pablo still plays a central role in the local
community today.
Iglesia de la Inmaculada Concepcion - 21812 County Rd P.6, San Luis, CO 81152
Located in Chama (even though the postal address suggests otherwise) in the San Luis Valley, Iglesia de la Inmaculada Concepción (Church of the Immaculate Conception) is a Catholic church built in 1938 under the supervision of Father Onofre Martorell. It continues to serve as an important community center, with Mass celebrated in Spanish during the summer. In 2012 the church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Settled around 1864 by Hispanos moving north from New Mexico, Chama was originally known as Culebra because of its location along Culebra Creek. Like other early Hispano towns in the San Luis Valley, the first place of worship was a small chapel on the town plaza. These rustic chapels, usually made of upright logs plastered with clay, fulfilled religious functions until permanent adobe churches could be constructed. Soon the town was renamed after the chapel’s patron saint, Nuestra Señora del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary). The town and its church went by that name until the early twentieth century.
By the 1910s, that church was in need of repair or reconstruction. The parishioners in Chama (renamed in 1907 in honor of the New Mexico town from which many of its residents had migrated) turned to the Catholic Extension magazine to raise money for a new church. They received a donation that came with the condition that the new church be named Immaculate Conception. The town accepted the donation and in 1915 local farmers built a new church called Iglesia de la Inmaculada Concepción. The adobe church was built adjacent to an irrigation ditch a few hundred feet north of the town center, on land donated by the Cruz Sanchez family.
Chama’s church burned down in 1935. To fund a new building, the community started a baseball team called the Chama Kitos and sold game tickets to raise money. The pastor of Sangre de Cristo Parish, Father Onofre Martorell, guided the rebuilding effort. Completed in 1938, the reconstructed Iglesia had a single-story cruciform plan with an eastern nave entrance. The design was similar to that of Iglesia de San Pedro y San Pablo, the construction of which Martorell had overseen in 1934. Some of the exterior adobe walls incorporated the remains of the previous church.
Iglesia de la Inmaculada Concepción still plays a central role in the Chama community. During the summer a priest from Sangre de Cristo Parish conducts Mass at each local mission church in the area, including Inmaculada Concepción. Mass is still conducted in Spanish.
Iglesia de San Francisco de Assisi - 23587 County Road J.2 San Francisco, CO 81152
Located
in San Francisco in the southeastern San Luis Valley, Iglesia de San
Francisco de Assisi is a Catholic church featuring Gothic and Mission
Revival elements. Constructed in the 1950s using concrete blocks and
casement windows, the building shows how the local parish adapted modern
building techniques to traditional ecclesiastical architecture after
World War II. In 2012 the church was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places.
In 1853–54, the town of San Francisco was
established as one of the earliest settlements in the San Luis Valley.
Located about nine miles southeast of San Luis, it was started by
Hispano settlers along San Francisco Creek and named after the town’s
patron saint, St. Francis. Like other early Hispano villages in the
area, San Francisco organized quickly to provide for two of the
community’s most pressing needs: water and worship. By 1860 the settlers
had dug San Francisco Ditch for irrigation and established a rustic
oratorio (chapel) or other simple space for worship.
The first formal church in San Francisco was built around the time
Sangre de Cristo Parish was established in the 1880s. By 1889, an adobe
chapel with twenty-four-inch walls and a flat roof was in use just west
of the present church. After Father Samuel García became pastor of
Sangre de Cristo Parish in 1894, he probably added a gabled roof and
tower to the chapel, giving it an appearance similar to that of Capilla
de San Isidro in Los Fuertes, a single-nave adobe church constructed
around the same time.
Iglesia de San Francisco de Assisi was among the last churches Martorell built during his tenure and reflected a shift to modern construction materials while still retaining the basic forms and feel of a traditional adobe mission church.
Santo Niño church - 546 NM-196, Amalia, NM 87512
I looked hard but was unable to find anything about this church. Though... we liked the look of it ;)
La Plaza de Arriba in Costilla, New Mexico.
Located at
the southern end of the San Luis Valley, the region was first settled by
Ute Indians about 12,000 years ago. These people, the oldest continuous
residents of Colorado, were referred to as the “Blue Sky People” by
visiting tribesmen of the eastern plains due to the startling, intense
clarity of the sky.
Along with nearby Amalia, New Mexico, and Garcia, Colorado, Costilla was founded as a farming and ranching community in the early 1800s. Initially, all three were all part of Taos County, New Mexico. When the United States won the Mexican-American War, New Mexico became a U.S. Territory. Hispanic settlers then began moving north and settling in the valley after the United States made a treaty with the Ute Indians and established a fort. The three small towns were listed in the first American census of 1850 as having approximately 3,000 people.
Town of Costilla was
settled in the late 1840s. These men and others from Arroyo Hondo, New
Mexico, became familiar with the Costilla area as they traveled through
the San Luis Valley and over the Sangre de Cristo Pass into Colorado.
Seeking pasture land for their livestock, they grazed their sheep and
cattle in the area in the summer. After a few years, they permanently
settled along the Rio Costilla and built adobe homes together in a
U-shaped rectangle for defense. In 1849, seven plazas were settled along
the Rio Costilla to encourage occupation on the Sangre de Cristo Land
Grant.
The pioneering families built their homes around four plazas
that defined the original Costilla community. The settlers also built a
small church called San Miguel de la Costilla in the 1850s; however, it
would not gain a priest until the early 1860s. The settlers also began
to dig the “acequia madre,” the mother ditch, to irrigate their lands,
which is still in use today.
Sagrado Corazón Catholic Chapel - 64 Garcia Rd, Costilla, NM 87524
The Sagrada de Corazon de Jesus (Sacred Heart of Jesus)
Church in Costilla was built in 1890. It is considered a mission of St.
Anthony Church in Questa.
Just one mile from the state border, Costilla lies
at the southernmost end of Colorado’s San Luis Valley, a rich
high-elevation farming region. According to one source, the first
settlers accompanied Juan de Jesus Bernal from Arroyo Hondo in 1852. The
pioneering families built their homes around four plazas that defined the original Costilla community.
The adobe church, cruciform in shape, was built on the Plaza de
Arriba (upper plaza). The community land was split up when the U.S.
government redrew New Mexico’s northern boundary in 1861. Families with
homes in the Plaza de Abajo (lower plaza) found themselves living in
Colorado Territory (now known as Garcia, Colorado). Then as now, the
faithful living in Colorado had to cross the state line to attend
services at their community church in Costilla.
Sacred Heart Church - County Road 13.2 Garcia, CO 81152
San Luis is the undisputed oldest occupied town in Colorado having been founded in June 1851 and subsequently incorporated. There is another community north of the Colorado-New Mexico line called Garcia. Although it pre-dates San Luis by two years, Garcia was never incorporated. In 1849 – Manuel Manzanares and his brother were encouraged by Luis Beaubien to settle the land grant. The plaza is known as La Plaza de los Manzanares.
Several years later Guillermo and Agapito García petitioned for a
Post Office and is named in honor of their last name. They were one of
the first colonists of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. The Manzanarez
Ditch, taking water from the Costilla River was decreed in 1854 and
Pedro Manzanarez operated the flour mill. Catholic families in the plaza
attended church in Costilla but had a chapel in Garcia too. There was a
Penitente morada at the plaza, and missions were operated by
Presbyterian, Methodist and pentecostal churches as well.
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Mission Church - NM-378, Questa, NM 87556
Settlers from Taos and Questa established this farming
community, named after the Cerro Guadalupe Mountains, in 1854. The
villagers built a church on Cabresto Creek some time later. When Father
Smith came to serve at Cerro in 1940, however, the old adobe building
was crumbling and leaking. The priest asked his parishioners if they
wanted a new church, cautioning they would receive no outside assistance. Under his administration, the determined congregation made
plans to replace the old church. Some of the veterans returning from
World War II began making adobes. The people came together to finance
and construct their new place of worship. The resulting cruciform
structure, built along the roadside, has a lofty, two-story profile
where distinctive walled-in double towers frame a bell suspended between
the two. The building stands as a testament to the villagers’ willpower
and their love of the Lord.
We dropped our bags in the AirBnB we rented for this stay and went
to the main plaza, to look around and admire some of the decorations...
The pictures were taken on December 07, 2024.
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