San Miguel Chapel

One of the oldest churches in the world is San Miguel Chapel. It's thought that Tlaxcalan communities that migrated to New Mexico from the Mexican state of Tlaxcala constructed it between 1610 and 1626. Initially, it was believed that Tlaxcalan laborers and newly arrived Spanish soldiers from Mexico used the church.

The chapel is situated in Santa Fe's Barrio de Analco, a district designated as a national historic site. According to oral history, a group of Mexican Indians from Tlaxcala created the neighborhood. The Franciscan friars oversaw the construction of the modest adobe church to serve the residents of the Barrio de Analco, which included soldiers, laborers, and Indians. During the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, it was partially destroyed. The current structure was constructed around 1710, however there have been substantial structural alterations since then.

The church suffered severe damage on numerous occasions, but it was always repaired and rebuilt (once as a result of a dispute between the governor of New Mexico and church authorities, and again during the Pueblo Revolt, when the Pueblo people ousted Spanish colonizers). A violent storm in 1872 demolished a three-story bell tower that had been constructed in 1848, but the "San Jose Bell" was spared and is now on display inside the church.

Location: 401 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501, America