Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
When Santa Fe became part of the United States, Rome sent a French priest, Jean-Baptiste Lamy, to be its bishop. Among the adobe buildings of the old Spanish town he raised a cathedral of golden stone in the Romanesque style of his native France. It was begun in 1869 around the old adobe parish church, which was then demolished from inside. Lamy’s life inspired Willa Cather’s novel Death Comes for the Archbishop.
The unfinished towers were never given their planned spires. A chapel of the old parish church survives on the north side of the cathedral. It holds La Conquistadora, a small wooden statue of Our Lady brought to New Mexico in 1625. It is the oldest statue of the Virgin Mary in the United States, and it has been carried in procession through Santa Fe for more than three centuries.
Pope Benedict XVI made the cathedral a minor basilica in 2005. A bronze statue of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint, stands outside.
- Built
- 1869–1886
- Style
- Romanesque Revival
- Where
- Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
- Map
- Find it on OpenStreetMap
- Read about
- Saint Francis of Assisi