THE END: Old Town, Albuquerque, NM

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Old Town, Albuquerque, NM

Albuquerque's Old Town encompasses about ten blocks of historic adobe buildings. We enter from

the Art Museum parking lot.

It is a maze of courtyards

and Gardens

and adobe buildings. Here is a cut-out showing the adobe construction.

Then you hit the Town Square. Old Town looks much like it did when it was founded. It consists of about 10 blocks of historic adobe buildings, shops and Native crafts.

The focal point of the Square is the San Felipe Church. It is the oldest building in the City - built in 1793.

This was the 306th Founders Day.

The Plaza was buzzing with activity.

Native American Dancers

A Mariachi Band played in the Gazebo.

Sundays are Free at the Art Museum so we visited it. No pictures allowed inside the Museum but they have a great Sculpture Garden outside. This sculpture depicts Don Juan de Oñate leading the first group of Spanish colonists into New Mexico. This did not meet with unanimous approval. We learned a little bit about him at the Gutierrez Hubbell House. Another statue of Onate erected just outside Espanola, NM had it's right foot cut off by a protestor. It seems that Onate pillaged, raped, mutilated (cutting the right foot off of captured males) and murdered the native americans. Eventually he was tried for his crimes, incarcerated for a short time and then exiled from New Mexico forever. So why they are honoring this guy left and right is beyond me.