New Mexico

The adobe homes, ceremonial kivas, archeological remains, and the ruins of an original San Geronimo de Taos and its 1850 replacement reflect this coming together of American Indian and Spanish culture.

One of the earliest examples of a Spanish Colonial era mission that was established in 1630 by Franciscan missionaires at Zuni Pueblo. The original mission complex included an enclosed adobe convento. The mission was partially burned and the priest killed during the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.

During much of the Spanish colonial period, Santo Domingo was an important Franciscan mission center and the ecclesiastical capital of New Mexico. A mission church erected here before 1607 by Fray Juan de Escalona, was considered one of the largest and finest in New Mexico.

Santa Clara Pueblo was first visited in 1541 by part of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado's expeditionary force. A mission was established in 1628 as a visita  for San Juan Pueblo. In 1680 the inhabitants of Santa Clara took an active part in the Great Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish.

The mission was built as one of the four missions among the Piro Pueblos between 1615 and 1626 through the Camino Real. This mission was partly destroyed after the Pueblo Revolt and only portions of the old church remains, including parts of the adobe walls and beams.

Positioned in the mountains north of Santa Fe on the high road to Taos, the pueblo of Pícuris remains small and quiet. Fray Francisco de Zamora was charged with the establishment of the permanent mission, which was built around 1620.

San Juan Pueblo is known as the first Spanish settlement in the Southwest. After the recolonization of New Mexico by the Spanish in 1692, a mission complex was built to serve the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.

Pueblo Jemez, now in ruins, is a NM state monument.  Spanish missionaries first settled at the Gíusewa Pueblo in 1598 being Fray Alonso de Lugo the one to be in charge of establishing the Jémez mission province.

Built on a rocky hill for Keresan'speaking people from Acoma, Santo Domingo, and Cohití, this church was constructed with stone and adobe in 1701, following the social upheavals caused by the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.

The Mission at San Ildefonso became the center of Franciscan activity in the north when first built. The church was burned down in the Indian revolt of 1696 and then rebuilt later by the Spanish.

The Mission of San Gregorio de Abó, built in the late 1620's, is one of four missions built in the Salinas Province of early Spanish colonization in New Mexico which today comprise Salinas National Monument.

Continuously occupied since arrival of Spaniards in 1540, it was founded by Franciscan Father Juan Ramirez in 1629 and affected by the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Mission San Estévan del Rey, constructed between 1629 and 1641, is the oldest church of European construction remaining in New Mexico.

San Buenaventura de Cochiti was completed in 1628, following the prototype for its time and location: thick adobe walls, a single nave and beamed ceiling. However, several interventions throughout the years transformed into a nondescript chapel, lacking of architectural style.

Isleta Pueblo was established prior to the 1598 Spanish occupation of New Mexico and was burned during the Spanish attempt to reconquer the area following the 1680 Great Pueblo Revolt.

Construction of this mission began in 1627 by Fray Juan Gutiérrez de la Chica. At its peak, the Quarai pueblo had approximately 1,000 rooms and housed between 600 and 700 residents of both native and Spanish decent. The pueblo buildings were arranged around a number of small plazas.

The Mission Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción at Zia rests on a mesa looking eastward. Zía was the principal settlement of Cumanes province. Fray Alonso de Lugo was placed in charge of Zia in 1598 and the first church followed soon thereafter.

The first church at the Pecos Pueblo was probably built by the Franciscan Fray Pedro Zambrano Ortiz by 1619. The people of the pueblo would not allow construction of a church closer to their dwellings.

Zuni Pueblo, after the mission’s reestablishment yet again, the Zunis joined the general pueblo uprisings in 1680 and destroyed Mission La Purísima Concepción a final time. The Zuni and the Spanish then abandoned Hawikuh completely, never occupying it again.

The Inglesia de San Isidro is the earlier of two churches at Gran Quivira. Built between 1630 and 1635 of limestone quarried on site, the church measured 109 feet long by 29 feet wide. Inglesia de San Isidro was very similar in design to the church at Abó.