National Register Listing

San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church

a.k.a. See Also:Ranchos de Taos Plaza

The Plaza, Ranchos de Taos, NM

Built "between 1772 and I816, San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church is a large and excellent example of a New Mexico Spanish Colonial Church. This picturesque structure is probably the "best known and most photographed of all New Mexico mission churches.

History
San Francisco de Assisi Mission was founded in the early l8th century. 'The existing church is "believed to have been built about 1772. Tree ring boring, of the ceiling beams, however, yields a date of about I8l6, and it is probable that the roof was replaced or rebuilt about 1816. The white-stuccoed adobe building, 120 feet long, has exceptionally massive walls and the front is enclosed by a forecourt with almost equally thick adobe walls, round on top. The two wide buttresses on the east front rise the full width of the twin towers and flank an arched entrance portal with surface tracery and double-paneled doors. With a wide buttress against the apse at the west end and the beehive-curved buttresses at the corners of the boldly projecting north-south transepts, the structure is almost like a piece of abstract sculpture. On the interior, the vigas or beams of the flat ceiling are unusually close together and rest on elaborate double corbels. The choir loft over the entrance is lighted by a single window in the east facade. The nave is lighted by a single large window in each side wall, while the walls of the transepts and the sanctuary are windowless. Light for the sanctuary is provided by a clerestory window set in the transept wall over the nave roof. The large carved reredos over the altar, partitioned into panels, contains several old paintings,

Local significance of the building:
Architecture

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

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.