There is a local legend here of a church, the Loretto Chapel, which is about 200 years old. Apparently there is a staircase there which is “miraculous”. So we decided to pay a visit. It is a small chapel, and extremely beautiful. The statues and carvings look like they belong in one of the famous European cathedrals. It is one of the loveliest churches. We took many photos. The staircase itself is miraculous for two reasons:
Firstly, when the church was taken over by an order of nuns a hundred-and-something years ago, it was incomplete and the loft was reached by way of a ladder. The nuns needed to use the space up there but had trouble with the ladder (the loft is about 29.5 feet high). They needed a staircase but they had two problems. There wasn’t enough room for a staircase in the chapel and they had no money left for one anyway. So they prayed to St. Joseph, y’know, the carpenter and patron saint of workers and mysteriously, a carpenter arrived soon after and spent 6 months there building a spiral staircase. He worked alone and used only a hammer, saw and square. When he finished he mysteriously disappeared, without seeking any payment. Nice story, eh? Now here’s the clincher: It is a double spiral. It goes up 29.5 feet in a 720-degree spiral. It has no central pillar, no outer supports and no reinforcement of any kind. It simply supports itself with it’s own geometry. Not only is there not another like it in the world but modern engineers are baffled as to how it was accomplished. It is stunning. Sometimes it pays to keep an ear out for local legends.
We spent another hour or so touring the galleries and markets of downtown Santa Fe before heading south on US 285, and bidding a sad farewell, not only to Santa Fe, but also to Route 66.
We passed through a dying, dried up desert town called Encino, which had few cars and one horse in the main street. A real one-horse-town.
Our next stop was Roswell, NM. Famous for the supposed UFO crash and government cover-up there in 1947. It is a thriving town, with a core of old buildings surrounded by modern chain stores. In the heart of the old part of town, there is a UFO museum and research centre. We spent a couple of hours there. It was very informative about the 1947 incident and related matters. It was also very entertaining. All in all, well worth the $5 each.
In the afternoon, we continued south to the town of Carlsbad, near the Texas border. It is very famous for the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We checked into a cheap motel and had dinner at a great little family-owned restaurant, with down-home cooking, called Danny’s Place.
Roof Line of a hotel in Downtown Santa Fe
The Miraculous Staircase, Loretto Chapel, Santa Fe
PHD outside the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
One of hundreds of bronze statues seen in Santa Fe
No comments:
Post a Comment