As usual, we enjoyed a stroll through the streets of Taos as the
sun went down (click here to refresh your memory - Evening in Taos) and headed back to
the place we stayed during this trip. Actually, I think I should say a
few words about this place, don’t you think? Normally we stay in the
hotel when we are in the area, but this time we opted for AirBnB and we
didn't regret it. We spent a couple of days looking at all properties
nearby and eventually settled on the historic Mill House. Yeah... it
doesn’t look impressive from the outside… an old adobe building that
blends in with the surroundings… but inside, it was something else.
When we entered the house, we were greeted by a large, bright
kitchen. Everything was beautiful and functional. The house had recently
been renovated and offered everything the weary travelers need…
A nice dining area (if you don't want to eat in the kitchen) opens
up to the entertainment room on one side and a bedroom on the other.
There was plenty of space and the interior was warm and cozy. Just
what we needed after a day-long drive here and later after we wandered around
the city next day...
Check out this short video to see the entire property.
Anyway, Monday morning was departure time and we planned another
slow and long drive back to Denver. We were in no rush and also wanted
to finish exploring the old historic churches ;) So... we woke up, had
breakfast, waited for the sun to warm up the air and... headed to our
first destination - the village of Arroyo Seco.
We had been driving for about 15 minutes when a small church on the
side of the road made us turn around, so we stopped to look at Santa
Teresa De Jesus Chapel.
Nothing special, but still a cute little chapel just off the side of the road from Taos to the north...
We started with a short drive from Taos and off the main road
again. A nice village on the way to the ski resort and we planned to
check out a couple of old churches there. But first we walked the main
street and looked around... Found some interesting local stores...
Church construction may have started as early as 1820 and was
completed in 1834. The massive size of the structure - 30 by 70 feet
with thick adobe walls - in proportion to the small placita (little
plaza) where it stands provided a defensive sanctuary during Indian
raids, common at the time. In 1911 after the railroads made new
materials accessible, a pitched roof was added. In 1965 a new church was
built nearby to accommodate Arroyo Seco’s population growth. The
original historic church eventually fell into disrepair and in the 1990s
the New Mexico Community Foundation began stabilization efforts. From
1995 to 1997 parishioners, aided by Habitat for Humanity and AmeriCorps,
fully restored La Santisima Trinidad.
We wandered around Arroyo Seco for another hour, visiting local pottery shops...
So we returned back to the main road (Ski Valley Rd) and stopped at
a wool craft store to look at some nice work of the local artists.
We then stopped at El Prado to look at the missionary chapel of Our
Lady of Sorrows. Situated just off the main road through the village,
it's a beautiful sight.
A few more minutes and we found another gem - San Cristóbal Mission
Chapel in the community of San Cristóbal that was founded in about 1860
to farm the land surrounding the settlement. The village was too small
to support a church and for decades the inhabitants attended mass in
Arroyo Hondo. In the 1930s the community grew large enough to warrant
building their own church. The Silva family donated land and the people
made enough adobe bricks to begin building in 1935.
When the San Cristóbal church was completed in 1937, it had only a
wood stove for heat and no water. Since then the parishioners have
installed gas, electricity, and running water. The pitch-roofed church
with its concrete belfry is built in the simple nave style and falls
under the jurisdiction of the Holy Trinity Parish in Arroyo Seco.
But... we had a chance to come inside and look at the interiors ;)
Several attempts preceded the official founding of the San Antonio del Rio Colorado community
in 1842. Indian attacks thwarted Francisco Laforet’s first efforts in
1829, forcing him to move to a cuesta (ridge) near the foothills of the
Sangre de Cristos that offered more protection. The next pobladores
(settlers) arrived in 1835, only to be dispersed again by bands of
raiding Indians.
By the 1850s conditions changed to allow the construction of a
church, first mentioned in the Santa Fe Archdiocese records in 1860
after Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy visited the area. He reported a
“beautiful new chapel on the north side of the Rio Colorado plaza.” That
church was replaced by the present one, completed sometime between 1865
and 1875, which served as the mother church for the surrounding
community missions until 2008. It had become evident that capillary
action of water beneath hard plaster had caused cracking and bowing in
the east wall and nave and recently the west wall gave way and
collapsed.
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe declared the church unsafe and set a
plan to demolish the historic landmark. Restoration group negotiated
reconstruction and the Village of Questa was given 6 years to complete
the task. A 501C3 group was formed to raise the money and by the fall of
2012 the west wall of the church had been rebuilt. Close inspection
confirmed that the east wall was in dire need of help too.
Finally the reconstruction of the west, east, and north walls
entailed the laying of over 30,000 adobes but the church was saved and
opened in August 2016. It took 45,000 volunteer hours and approximately
$1.5 million in donations and fundraising to complete the work.
After leaving Questa, we drove up north for about an hour, enjoying wide open vistas and mountain ranges in the distance...
Finally, we made our last stop to explore the Capilla de San Acacio
(Viejo San Acacio), the oldest non-Native American religious space in
Colorado. The community has used the church for more than 150 years and
continues to celebrate Mass and the annual feast day of Santo Acacio
there.
The first religious structure in San Acacio was a small oratorio (chapel), which still stood just east of the mission church in 1955 but was destroyed in the 1960s. Similar rustic log chapels, made of upright logs and plastered with coats of clay, were built in towns throughout the San Luis Valley. These chapels fulfilled religious functions until permanent adobe churches could be constructed, which often took years because the men of the villages had little time to spare after working hard simply to survive.
The mission church built in honor of Santo Acacio cannot be
precisely dated, but it is generally considered the oldest non–Native
American religious space in Colorado that is still in use today. The
single-story adobe church and adjacent sacred spaces were all arranged
on an east-west axis, with the church and the oratorio facing east.
Initially, villagers probably built the church’s thirty-inch-thick adobe
walls just high enough for a temporary roof to be constructed.
This was our last scheduled stop and then we headed straight to Walsenburg where we planned to refuel both the car and the travelers... The weather was chilly but deep blue skies and plenty of sunshine made us doubt the forecast that promised some snow, and it was a mistake as we learned later.
But... while on the way we enjoyed the views, the mountains and the clouds...
Entering Walsenburg we noticed the lack of sun in the sky, but didn't really pay much attention to it... But... when we returned to the car after a short (I mean it!) pit stop we were surprised by a few snowflakes floating in the air... the forecast turned out to be right and we didn't like it as we still had a few hours on the road ahead of us.
It took about 10 minutes to get to Highway 25 and by this time the
visibility was only a couple hundred yards and the light blizzard had
turned the road into a white and slippery trail...
Wow, this was an adventure we didn't ask for. We were lucky because
there weren't many cars on the road so we were alone (and that helps a
lot :) ). We drove through the snow all the way to Pueblo, where the
snowfall slowed down a bit...
But it wasn't the end, cuz soon after we passed Colorado Springs,
the snow picked up again and it took over an hour to drive the next 30
miles... at least we were lucky that we were following a snowplow (the
main reason for the slow driving), it didn't improve visibility, but the
road had just been cleared of a thick layer of snow ;)
What a day it was... We started with lots of sun and warmth and ended moving slowly through a light blizzard... It was an unforgettable adventure, but... we did not regret it. What could be better than over 600 miles and 3 days on the road exploring old and historical places?
The pictures were taken on December 09, 2024.
No comments:
Post a Comment