San Felipe de Neri Church
a.k.a. San Francisco Xavier,San Felipe Apostol
Old Town Plaza, NW, Albuquerque, NMSan Felipe de Neri is notable primarily for its surviving and easily interpreted record of architectural evolution spanning more than two and a half centuries. It was built in 1706, the year that saw the founding of Albuquerque; the certificate of founding was issued by Governor Cuervo y Valdes. The Franciscan, Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez, described the original building in his report of 1776.
San Felipe was rebuilt in 1793. Nineteenth-century changes reflect the influence of a change in church administration following the establishment of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe under Archbishop Lamy, and other changes resulting from the coming of the railroad and an influx of settlers from the midwest and elsewhere.
Through the centuries the church has been in continuous use by a population that has progressively adapted the building to new conditions and new preferences. Considered separately, each stratum of construction provides as fine an example of its period as may be found in New Mexico today. The massive adobe walls with wood vigas and elaborately carved corbels date from the 18th century and are rivaled by not more than six churches in New Mexico. The mid to late 19th-century exterior, including two bell towers, shows an extraordinary development in New Mexican folk art, which has now been lost from all of New Mexico's large churches with the exception of San Felipe. The chant cel and sacristies contain some of the finest existing examples of New Mexican interpretations of Greek revival and Victorian cabinet work and decoration. However, the great architectural value of the complex derives from the unique amalgamation of work from each era. Essentially all of New Mexico's post-Spanish past is contained and synthesized in San Felipe de Neri.
Dr. Bunting adds: "The resultant architecture may sometimes seem naive, but it is as sincere as it is possible to be, and lit belongs to a specific time and place. The same particular combination of circumstances that coalesce in the Rio Grande Valley at this time were not repeated anywhere else in the world
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.