Santuario de Chimayó

The panel's last line covers the church's closest call. By the 1920s the Abeyta heirs were short of money, the Medina family's chapel of the Santo Niño down the lane was drawing pilgrims away, and santos had been sold to make ends meet. In 1929 the new Spanish Colonial Arts Society, led by Mary Austin, Frank Applegate and John Gaw Meem among others, bought the Santuario, tracked down sold pieces and handed the deed to Archbishop Albert Daeger. The Santo Niño chapel stayed in private hands until 1992.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Santuario de Chimayó In 1816, Bernardo Abeyta and the other residents of El Potrero, then a separate community, fin- ished this massive adobe chapel honoring Nuestro Señor de Esquípulas. It is noted for its 6-foot crucifix and its tradition of healing the sick. The Santuario remained in the Abeyta family until the 1920s.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• El Santuario de Chimayó — steps away
  A small adobe shrine on the High Road to Taos, built around 1816 over earth that pilgrims still carry away in hope of healing.
• Palace of the Governors — 21 mi
  The long adobe on the north side of the Santa Fe plaza, called the oldest public building in continuous use in the country, though its own founding date is in dispute.
• Fuller Lodge — 22 mi
  The upright-log dining hall of a boys' ranch school, which fed and housed the Manhattan Project after the Army bought the school in 1942.
• Bandelier National Monument — 24 mi
  Rooms carved into soft volcanic tuff in Frijoles Canyon, named for a Swiss scholar who was led there in 1880 by a man from Cochiti Pueblo.

More markers nearby

• Chimayo — 0.9 mi
• Cordova — 2.4 mi
• The St. Francis Women's Club — 6.1 mi
• Santa Cruz de la Cañada / Santa Cruz Plaza on the Camino Real — 6.5 mi