San Miguel Mission

As anyone who has read these travelogues knows, I love going into old buildings. I especially love them if they have some sort of religious connotation. So, a visit to the San Miguel Mission seemed like it would be a natural fit to my interests. What was there was interesting to see, but there was barely enough to justify the entrance price.

The San Miguel Mission is about one block south of the Loretto Chapel on Old Santa Fe Trail. Unlike the magnificent symmetry of the former structure, the San Miguel Mission looks a little misshapen. The square tower seems to fit uncomfortably on the roof, while the walls (thanks to some buttresses) seem to lean slightly. I didn’t find this appearance to be cheap in any way. Instead, it made the structure seem authentically ancient.

The entrance to the mission opens into the gift shop. We paid our $1 admission fee and entered the sanctuary. We were glad to see that the interior wasn’t gutted in the attempt to convert the church to an art gallery. There were chairs, an actual altar, and a couple of statues populating the sanctuary. While it was comforting to see these items, they were all there was to see. The sanctuary’s walls were whitewashed, which meant that there wasn’t any artistic decoration to accent the interior. The altarpiece was stunning, but there was nothing else of artistic merit to view. The only other item of interest was a glass covered hole in the ground. The foundations of the original mission, which was burned in 1680, and some of the artifacts from the original structure could be seen through this hole.

We left the church about 10 minutes after we entered it. Exiting the church takes the visitor back through the gift shop. We rang the mission’s original bell (cast in 1356), which sits near the door to the church. After ringing the bell, we left the structure.

The San Miguel Mission is in desperate need of a small museum to display its history and heritage. A museum would give the visitor an understanding and an appreciation of the mission’s history and role in Santa Fe’s development. As it is now, the visitor only has an inadequate taped “tour” to get that information. It’s a good thing that it only costs $1 to enter the San Miguel Mission. The historical significance alone makes it worth the admission cost. However, the mission offers little else to justify the cost.

The San Miguel Mission is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. There is a mass in the mission on Sunday at 5 p.m.

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