Loretto Chapel

The Sisters of Loretto commissioned the chapel in 1873 for Loretto Academy, which was founded in 1853 and operated until 1968. Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy suggested the Sisters use the French architects Antoine Mouly and his son Projectus, who were then working on St. Francis Cathedral; Projectus Mouly was the main architect. The Gothic Revival design was modeled on the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, and the building is made of locally quarried sandstone with stained glass imported from France and carried over the Santa Fe Trail. Construction took about five years, and the NPS dates the chapel's completion to 1878.

Students and nuns used the chapel daily until the academy closed. Afterward the rest of the campus was demolished, and the chapel survives today as a privately owned museum and wedding venue on the Old Santa Fe Trail.

The chapel was built without a way up to its choir loft. Under the traditional account kept by the Sisters, they prayed a nine-day novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, and a stranger arrived, built the stairs and disappeared before he could be paid or named. That is a legend, and the Sisters credit St. Joseph.

The physical facts are better documented. The stair rises about 20 feet in two full 360-degree turns, has 33 steps, and is held together with wooden pegs rather than nails or glue. It is made mostly of spruce, probably not native to New Mexico. Its inner stringer has seven segments and its outer stringer nine. One account puts construction between 1877 and 1881, and Projectus Mouly's death in 1879 may have delayed the work. Handrails and an iron support bracket were added in 1887 by Phillip August Hesch.

The builder has never been proven. Santa Fe historian Mary Jean Cook proposed in her 1984 book that he was a French carpenter, Francois-Jean "Frank" Rochas (1843-1894), though another researcher disputes that identification.

The chapel was placed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties on June 20, 1971, and is a contributing property to the Santa Fe Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, designated July 23, 1973.

The chapel is small, so a visit is typically short and pairs easily with the nearby Plaza district. Check the operator for current hours, admission, event closures and access, as the building is also used for weddings.

For a Voyzo private tour, your private vehicle and driver provide door-to-door pickup, so the chapel can be one stop in a relaxed Santa Fe day without worrying about parking in the historic center. We do not set a fixed itinerary here; your plan is built around your preferences.