SALINAS "In the Midst of a Loneliness": The Architectural History of the Salinas Missions

THE SECOND CHURCH AND CONVENTO (continued)

The High Roof

The construction crews installed the massive crossbeams for the specific purpose of supporting the vigas of the high roof over the empty spaces of the church. Most of the roofing vigas were smaller in cross section and weighed less than the nave vigas. Because they were thinner, the crews had to space them closer together to support the weight of the roof.

The roofing vigas ran lengthwise down the church, at right angles to the crossbeams. Over the side chapels and crossing the crew set twenty-four vigas, each measuring about ten inches high and eight inches wide, at intervals of slightly more than twelve inches. Six of the vigas over the side chapels were twenty-four feet long and set into the north and south walls. The other eighteen vigas were about forty-eight feet long, the longest beams in the church. They extended from the upper clerestory vigas on the south, across the sanctuary mouth vigas at about twenty-four feet, all the way to the wall above the side altars and the apse mouth viga on the north. Beneath each viga the crews placed a corbel of the same cross-section. [39] Between the vigas and the crossbeams over the sanctuary mouth, the construction crews placed two-ended corbels. These supported the centers of the long vigas. In order to place these corbels, as well as the catwalk across the mouth of the sanctuary and the vertical posts supporting the crossbeam, the carpenters had to construct scaffolding across the church at this point. The high roof sloped downward to the west like the nave roof. [40]

Over the apse, the vigas and corbels ran east-west. They were approximately the same cross-section as the vigas over the side chapels and sanctuary, and set at the same height. These vigas had the same slope downward to the west as the rest of the high roof. [41]

When the construction crews had built up the stonework above the bond beams on the east and west walls and the ends of the vigas and corbels on the north and south walls, the carpenters began laying roof latillas and matting of juniper and pinon branches. Once these materials were in place, the construction crews hauled buckets of clay mortar to the roof and spread them over the surface. The masons continued work on the parapets, setting the canales in place along the west edge of the roof and then building crenelations over them as on the nave walls. When the crenelations were built, the major construction on the new church was complete. All that remained were the plastering of the exterior and the finishing of the interior.

Finishing the Church

The finishing crews went to work, covering the outside of the church and sacristy with a coating of clay mortar. [42] On the inside they poured a smooth clay floor over the old floor in the south half of the church and over the packed dirt fill inside the new foundations in the north section. They covered the interior walls with white plaster and painted dados and other decorative patterns along the lower portions in colors of red, blue, and black. [43]

The masons and carpenters built five altars in the sanctuary and side chapels at the north end of the church (see the plan of the second church in figure 4). The main altar stood within the apse on a packed clay platform edged by a stone retaining wall across the mouth of the apse. The top of the main altar platform was about 3 1/2 feet above the floor of the church. On the main platform the carpenters probably built one or two wooden steps, forming another platform seven or eight inches high on which the alter itself stood. On the wall behind the altar, Acevedo probably laid out a retablo design on the plaster, and the painters added the necessary details and colors. Eventually this flat retablo-like design would be covered by a large wooden retablo from Mexico City, but for the present a simple painted retablo would suffice. The construction crew built a staircase, probably of adobe bricks with wooden beams forming the nose of each step, running from the front of the altar platform down to the edge of the platform extending across the width of the sanctuary at the mouth of the apse. The staircase had about five steps. It probably had a railing along each side, running up to a short section of railing attached to the vertical beam forming the two edges of the apse opening. The colaterales, or side altars, stood against the north wall on either side of the apse. Each extended out from the wall about two feet and had a board inset in the top against the wall. A painted retablo design probably covered the wall above each side altar. The sanctuary platform on which the side altars stood was about 7 1/2 feet across. It was covered with flagstone, and a large beam running from the east wall to the west wall of the sanctuary formed a step of about five inches from the floor of the church to the platform. [44]

The side chapels received similar arrangements. Each had a low platform about five inches high edged with wooden beams. The surface of each platform was covered with flagstone and supported an altar with a rubble stone core faced with adobe bricks. The carpenters set vertical posts into sockets cut into the edging beam along the front of the altar platform to support a partition screen. The screen, about eight feet high, ran across the mouth of each side chapel on the line of the nave walls, turning at the north corners back to the side walls of the sanctuary area, 2 1/2 feet wider at each side. It consisted of two rails, one about 3 1/2 feet above the ground and the second about eight feet high. The supporting posts were about 6 1/2 and thirteen feet from the south wall, with a third post at the north corners. At the south edge of the side chapels the rails were set into the corner of the wall, and into the side wall of the sanctuary on the north. The rails probably supported a decorative latticework or turned poles that might have extended all the way up to the edge of the tribune overhead. The screen apparently had an opening between the two middle posts, about 6 1/2 feet wide. Above the altars the finishing crew painted decorative designs in black and possibly other colors, creating a retablo-like design here as over the other altars. [45]

When they were completed, the side altar screens continued the walls of the nave across the mouth of the side chapels. Not until the north edge of the side chapels did the nave widen out to form a transept-like space in front of the side altars at the head of the church. The clerestory window, instead of being situated at the south edge of the transept, was at the south edge of the side chapels, about twenty-one feet farther south. This arrangement of space appears to have been unique to Abó among the missions of New Mexico.

Finishing the Sacristy

The finishing crews then turned to the sacristy. The carpenters laid two beams onto the packed earth fill along the north side of the sacristy, and then poured a clay floor. They plastered the walls of the sacristy and probably added painted decoration in the form of a dado. Using the beams set into the floor on the north side, they built a low platform supporting an altar. Along the east wall the carpenters probably installed a large cabinet to hold the vestments and vessels for the mass. [46]

When the crews completed work on the sacristy about 1651, the remodeling of San Gregorio de Abó was complete. In a period of about six years, Fray Francisco Acevedo had changed San Gregorio from a small, commonplace church to one of the most striking and unusual buildings on the northern frontier. Within a few years, however, he would again fill the air around the church with dust and the sound of hammering. In the last few years of the 1650s Acevedo would decide that the convento was too small for such a large, handsome church, and would again embark on a planned program of demolition and reconstruction. For a few years, though, peace and quiet returned to Abó.

Figure 8. Plan of the second reconstruction of Abó, about 1658. During this construction, most of the remainder of the convento was changed to its present form. The residence hall and row of suites, each consisting of a cell and alcove, were added along the south side of the convento, and the front porch and portería reached their final plan. However, the convento would be changed once more before it was abandoned. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)