San Francisco de Asis Church

National Historic Landmark; A Spanish Colonial Mission Church Completed Around 1815 Whose Buttressed Rear Apse Is Among The Most Painted And Photographed Buildings In The United States · Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

The mission church at Ranchos de Taos was finished around 1815, and the thing that made it famous is the back of it. The rear apse is held up by four enormous rounded adobe buttresses that read as pure sculpted mass, with no windows and no ornament, and the shadows across them change hour by hour. Georgia O'Keeffe painted it repeatedly and said it was one of the most beautiful buildings left in the United States; Ansel Adams and Paul Strand both photographed it, and so has almost every photographer who has passed through northern New Mexico since. The building is maintained the traditional way rather than restored - every June the parish gathers to replaster the entire exterior by hand with mud and straw, which is why the walls curve and why the building looks alive rather than preserved. Inside there is a carved reredos and a much-discussed painting, and it is a working parish church with a congregation rather than a monument with a ticket desk.

60 St Francis Plaza, Ranchos de Taos, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, 87557, United States

The plaza and the exterior are open at all times and cost nothing, which matters because the famous view is of the back of the building from outside. The interior and the parish office keep limited daytime hours, generally weekday mornings and around services, and are closed during Mass to sightseers. Mass is celebrated in the church regularly, including Sunday mornings. The church closes to visitors during the June mudding, when the parish replasters the whole building by hand.

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