Old Town Albuquerque

As one can probably deduce from the name, Old Town Albuquerque is the area where Albuquerque began. The Old Town is marketed as an area where one can step back into time to experience what it felt like to live in Albuquerque at its inception. Actually, Old Town is too marketed to tourists, and too inundated by tourists, to convey that feeling. However, the area isn’t without its charms.

Old Town takes up about one square mile in the west-central portion of the present town. Because of its compact nature, it’s very easy to see the entire area within a couple of hours. Adding to the convenient size is the fact that most of the buildings in Old Town are single story structures. The only two story structures line the streets around the central plaza. As a result, it’s a very convenient place to tour.

All of the buildings in Old Town have been converted to shops or restaurants, with the exception of the San Felipe de Neri Church. Each of these shops adequately plays up its Southwest setting. There were chili peppers strands drying in the porches, Indian pots displayed in store windows, and turquoise jewelry being sold by streetside vendors. However, the whole thing felt unauthentic. It seemed like all of these “Southwest” trappings were burying any authentic elements that still remained in Old Town. In other words, the area was more a tourist trap than a glimpse into the town’s history.

Just because Old Town was overly commercialized doesn’t mean that there weren’t interesting things to visit. One of the more fascinating stores in which we stopped was Saints and Martyrs. This store sells reliquaries and religious art primarily from the 1800s and early 1900s. But, there was an occasional piece that was older than that. They also had a large variety of rosaries, religious prints, and Day of the Dead statues. Given my fascination with relics and religious icons, I thought I was in a candy store. My impression was made even stronger after talking to the owner. It was pretty clear from our talk that he wasn’t a “hands off” proprietor. He had several fascinating stories about the pieces in the store. We also swapped tales about various relics that each of us had seen. It was great to learn something from an expert in the field. It was also great to find a store that catered to such a narrow niche of religious expression. Even if one isn’t as fascinated with relics as I am, a visit to Saints and Martyrs is worth one’s time.

The most authentic part of Old Town was the San Felipe de Neri Church in the heart of the district. The church was constructed in 1706. However, it’s hard to tell what remains of the original structure, as the guidebooks indicate that much of it has been modified over the years. Now, it doesn’t look much like the classic Southwest adobe church. Instead, it looks vaguely Romanesque in its appearance. The only place where the church retains its adobe roots is in the nave, which is long and narrow like other adobe churches built by the Spanish missionaries in the 1700s. Even the presence of two small transepts just off the main altar doesn’t diminish the intimacy of the interior. The altar itself is nothing too spectacular. It is decorated with the basic collection of statues from the Spanish colonial era that can be found in any church of that period. The only curious piece at the altar was a statue lying in repose inside a glass coffin. There was no sign indicating whom the statue was supposed to represent, or if there were saint’s bones inside the statue. Still, it added a little bit of intrigue to the visit. Even if one doesn’t find statues in glass coffins interesting, the San Felipe de Neri church is worth visiting. The church is open from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Saturdays, it’s open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is free.

One place where admission prices had changed was at the Albuquerque Museum of Art, History, & Science. The edition of Lonely Planet that we were using said that admission was free. Instead, we found a sign at the door saying that effective July 1, 2001, admission cost $2 for adults, $1 for children, seniors, and students. Admission is free on the first Wednesday of each month. We instead decided to spend our money at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. However, if you decide to visit the Albuquerque Museum of Art, History, & Science, please be aware that there is now an admission charge.

There were some quaint and interesting points in our visit to Old Town. The Saints and Martyrs store, sipping a root beer float in the Plaza watching people walk by, and listening to a Peruvian band play the pan pipes in front of a shop come to mind as highlights of our stop. But, the whole area was too full of tourists and too commercialized to be enjoyable for me. I think it’s worth one’s time to make a short visit to Old Town. But, there are better attractions in Albuquerque which should be visited before, and for longer periods of time than, Old Town.

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