The Romance of Santa Fe

There has always been an air of romance about the Villa de Santa Fe, this old adobe capital on the borderlands of the Spanish Empire in the Americas, established in the heart of a very much older ‘Land of the Pueblos’, way back at the beginning of the 17th Century.

This romance is rooted in the city’s remarkable natural setting, 7000 feet above the sea, under an ocean of light, at the foot of the Southern Rocky Mountains.

It’s rooted in the spell of the living Pueblos and their deeply religious people.

It’s rooted in the failed dreams of the Spanish conquistadors and the Franciscan missionaries, who nevertheless kept the city a center of Colonial life and Catholic faith for over two centuries.

It’s rooted in the tales of the Old Santa Fe Trail and the Wild West of the American Territorial times.

And - surprisingly - it’s rooted in the intentional revival of Spanish, Indian, and Territorial arts and architecture in the early 20th Century, when Santa Fe discovered that its future lay in its past.

Please join us for one of Discovery’s walking tours, and spend an easy and enjoyable morning learning more about all these aspects of Santa Fe’s romantic history!