Situated at the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Santa Fe, New Mexico’s state capital, with its low buildings that blend in with the high desert locale has a wealth of museums, galleries, markets, and restaurants. The city, which celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2010, has always drawn those looking for open space, tranquility, and closeness to nature.
Some visitors might prefer to get out and see that nature but the surrounding beauty is still evident from the streets of the town. “Undulating hills that stretch to the horizon in all directions are a study in shades of buff, beige and brown,” as the American Automobile Association’s Arizona & New Mexico TourBook for 2011 termed Santa Fe.
High concentration of artists and exhibits of work
The city serves as a hub of fine art activity with numerous galleries around its main Plaza and adjoining streets. Canyon Road, east of the Plaza (called the “Art & Crafts Road”), has the highest concentration of art galleries in the city, and is a major destination for international collectors, tourists, and locals.
Santa Fe’s development as an artistic community began with American Indians and the continuing artifacts available from the Pueblo, Plains, and Navajo tribes include pottery, jewelry, beadwork, and textiles. The Plaza is the center for such festivities as the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, the world’s largest Native American art market, and the Spanish Market, and is a regular focal point of music ( particularly street musicians) and celebrations.
Hundreds of local galleries host openings and exhibits year-round and studio tours take place throughout the year. Museums regularly exhibit new shows of work done in the Southwest U.S. as well as traveling shows from around the world.
Continuing impact of Georgia O’Keeffe
Perhaps the best known artist in the state remains Georgia O’Keeffe and her representations of the New Mexico landscape in paintings, drawings, and sculptures. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe is devoted to exhibitions of her work and features changing shows, as well as insights into her life and how her work relates to contemporaries of the American Modernist era.
For more than five decades, starting in 1934, O’Keeffe, who died in 1986, lived part of every year at her Ghost Ranch house and at a second house with a gallery she bought some 13 miles away at Abiquiu (pronounced AB-ih-cue), about 50 miles north of Santa Fe on Highway 84. She was inspired there by the red rock cliffs and pyramid-shaped mountain Cerro Pedernal.
Opposite the Santa Fe Plaza is the Palace of the Governors, an adobe structure and National Historic Landmark that is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States. The Palace originally served as the seat of government of the Spanish colony of Nuevo Mexico and was home to Mexican and later American territorial governors. When New Mexico was annexed as a U.S. territory, the Palace became New Mexico’s first territorial capitol.
Lew Wallace completed the final parts of his book Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ in his office in the building while a territorial governor in the late 1870s and as he concurrently led the effort to capture legendary Wild West outlaw William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid.
At most times, Native American art takes center stage under the portal of the Palace of the Governors where Native artists, primarily silversmiths, spread out their work on blankets and sell directly to the public.
Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi
Also near the center of Santa Fe is the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, commonly known as Saint Francis Cathedral. It was built from the late 1860s to late 1880s under the direction of Santa Fe’s first Roman Catholic bishop, Jean Baptiste Lamy of France, on the site of an old adobe church.
The cathedral is a mix of adobe, French-Romanesque, and more modern architectural styles with stained glass from France and stone from Lamy, south of Santa Fe and named for the archbishop. Pope Benedict XVI officially designated Saint Francis as a basilica in 2005.
“Relations between Jews and Catholics have always been cordial in Santa Fe: Bishop Lamy raised the money to finish his Saint Francis Cathedral from the pioneer merchant Seligman family. It’s widely believed that he thanked them by inserting the Hebrew name of God in the arch above its door, violating certain Jewish rules about the name of God,” Joan Juliet Buck wrote in “Seeking Santa Fe” in the July 2007 Travel and Leisure.
Culinary aspects of Santa Fe
In between or after the shopping, galleries, and the scenery, the focus can easily turn to food in Santa Fe with some 200 restaurants.
Dishes with chile sauces dominate, even at breakfast, but other cuisines feature French, Italian, and Asian cooking. The Santa Fe Restaurant Association maintains an online dining guide for consulting.
Burritos are served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. A breakfast burrito often comes with either bacon, sausage, bologna, or ham, and potatoes, wrapped in a flour tortilla and topped with chile and cheese.
If the burrito doesn’t appeal, a choice of eggs are available with a thin green chile stew in a bowl and a flour tortilla served with butter on the side.
In so many aspects of Santa Fe, the options, like the sights, tend to be wide and varied.
Sources
- The Official 2011 Santa Fe Visitors Guide
- New Mexico 2011 Vacation Guide
- AAA Arizona & New Mexico TourBook, 2011 Edition
- Christopher Reynolds, "Old Santa Fe: 400 and still evolving," Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2010
- Joan Juliet Buck, "Seeking Santa Fe," Travel and Leisure, July 2007
John Seidenberg - John Seidenberg has worked on newspapers, newsletters, radio news, and produced specialized news publications as well as freelance ...
