El Santuario de Chimayo

National Historic Landmark; The Most Visited Catholic Pilgrimage Site In The United States, Drawing Roughly 300,000 People A Year And Around 30,000 Who Walk In On Good Friday · Chimayo, New Mexico

El Santuario de Chimayo is a small adobe church built in 1816 in a village in the Sangre de Cristo foothills, and it is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the United States. Roughly 300,000 people come each year, and around thirty thousand of them walk here on foot over Holy Week, some from Santa Fe thirty miles away, some from Albuquerque. The reason is a hole in the floor of a small side room, about the width of a dinner plate, holding dry reddish earth that pilgrims take away in bags and jars. The church makes no medical claim about it; the walls of the room next door are nevertheless covered floor to ceiling in abandoned crutches, braces, photographs and handwritten letters left by people who believe something happened. The building itself is a fine example of New Mexican adobe church architecture, with a carved and painted reredos behind the altar and twin bell towers, and the village around it is known separately for Chimayo chile and generations of weavers.

15 Santuario Drive, Chimayo, Chimayo, New Mexico, 87522, United States

Open daily to visitors through daylight hours, typically from mid-morning until late afternoon, with longer hours in summer. Mass is celebrated daily and several times on Sunday, and the chapel is closed to sightseeing during services. Holy Week is entirely different: the site stays open through the night from Holy Thursday into Good Friday for the pilgrimage, and the surrounding roads are closed to traffic. The adjoining shops keep their own shorter hours.

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