Last updated: December 30, 2023
Place
San José de Gracia Church, Las Trampas New Mexico
Courtesy of the Historic American Buildings Survey
Quick Facts
Location:
Las Trampas, New Mexico
Significance:
Architecture, Latino Heritage
Designation:
National Register of Historic Places
MANAGED BY:
Las Trampas is one of a string of villages that sit on the scenic High Road (NM 76) between Santa Fe and Taos. Twelve Spanish Families first settled the area in 1751. The village of Las Trampas was originally built within a defensive wall with low buildings packed around a central plaza. The tight-knit traditional Spanish community flourished for hundreds of years. Within the village is the San José de Gracia Church, one of the most-original and best-preserved examples of Spanish Colonial architecture in New Mexico.
Today, the Las Trampas Historic District preserves significant elements of the 18th century village, including the San José de Gracia Church. Both the district and church are cultural treasures designated as National Historic Landmarks. This article is based on the/those NHL nominations. The Spanish Plaza town, continually occupied throughout the Spanish, Mexican and American periods – still survives as a distinct community today.
The original settlers of Las Trampas laid out their village to deflect attacks by constructing tightly packed adobe buildings around a small central plaza. A defensive wall ringed the exterior of the community. By 1776 the original 12 families had grown to 63, with a total of 278 people living in the village.
When Las Trampas was founded, the nearest church was almost ten miles away at Picuris. By around 1760, the colonists began constructing the San José de Gracia Church. The church is in a typical Spanish-style, single nave plan, about 100 feet long. Its walls are made of a thick, plastered adobe. The church has a simple façade comprised of two flanking buttresses topped by wooden belfries. Within, a simple wood-floored balcony, accessed via a ladder, serves as a choir loft above the main entrance. Wooden vigas (log beams) support the roof and gracefully rise over the main interior. Though simple in form, the nave was extensively decorated with paintings, most of which remain beautifully preserved today.
Some travelers on the long mountain road between Santa Fe and Taos visited Las Trampas, but otherwise it remained a relatively isolated, insular community for decades. Due to ongoing conflict with the local indigenous population it was not until the establishment of Fort Burgwin, in 1853, that the townspeople began building houses away from this main plaza. Still, throughout the late 19th and into the early 20th centuries, Las Trampas remained a secluded community, and has maintained its Spanish heritage.
The original plaza plan of Las Trampas still exists in the small village, though the buildings that currently sit on the square likely date from the 1850’s or later. No remains of the surrounding defensive wall are visible. The San José de Gracia Church is the only distinctly Spanish Colonial building that remains completely intact within the historic district.
The church still retains most of its original 18th century features with its wide-plank wooden floors, decorative interior, and the strong adobe walls that have been preserved and continually re-plastered. The unique and original transverse clerestory window in the nave casts light on the sanctuary and altar, which is otherwise still lit by candles. Such clerestory windows are unknown elsewhere in Spanish Colonial architecture or in Christian architecture anywhere in the world. They were likely an invention of the Franciscan padres of New Mexico, and the church at Las Trampas has a beautiful example. In the walled forecourt of the church is the cemetery, the final resting place of the people of Las Trampas for generations. The district with its simple plaza and its original church are reminders of New Mexico’s Spanish past.
Today, the Las Trampas Historic District preserves significant elements of the 18th century village, including the San José de Gracia Church. Both the district and church are cultural treasures designated as National Historic Landmarks. This article is based on the/those NHL nominations. The Spanish Plaza town, continually occupied throughout the Spanish, Mexican and American periods – still survives as a distinct community today.
The original settlers of Las Trampas laid out their village to deflect attacks by constructing tightly packed adobe buildings around a small central plaza. A defensive wall ringed the exterior of the community. By 1776 the original 12 families had grown to 63, with a total of 278 people living in the village.
When Las Trampas was founded, the nearest church was almost ten miles away at Picuris. By around 1760, the colonists began constructing the San José de Gracia Church. The church is in a typical Spanish-style, single nave plan, about 100 feet long. Its walls are made of a thick, plastered adobe. The church has a simple façade comprised of two flanking buttresses topped by wooden belfries. Within, a simple wood-floored balcony, accessed via a ladder, serves as a choir loft above the main entrance. Wooden vigas (log beams) support the roof and gracefully rise over the main interior. Though simple in form, the nave was extensively decorated with paintings, most of which remain beautifully preserved today.
Some travelers on the long mountain road between Santa Fe and Taos visited Las Trampas, but otherwise it remained a relatively isolated, insular community for decades. Due to ongoing conflict with the local indigenous population it was not until the establishment of Fort Burgwin, in 1853, that the townspeople began building houses away from this main plaza. Still, throughout the late 19th and into the early 20th centuries, Las Trampas remained a secluded community, and has maintained its Spanish heritage.
The original plaza plan of Las Trampas still exists in the small village, though the buildings that currently sit on the square likely date from the 1850’s or later. No remains of the surrounding defensive wall are visible. The San José de Gracia Church is the only distinctly Spanish Colonial building that remains completely intact within the historic district.
The church still retains most of its original 18th century features with its wide-plank wooden floors, decorative interior, and the strong adobe walls that have been preserved and continually re-plastered. The unique and original transverse clerestory window in the nave casts light on the sanctuary and altar, which is otherwise still lit by candles. Such clerestory windows are unknown elsewhere in Spanish Colonial architecture or in Christian architecture anywhere in the world. They were likely an invention of the Franciscan padres of New Mexico, and the church at Las Trampas has a beautiful example. In the walled forecourt of the church is the cemetery, the final resting place of the people of Las Trampas for generations. The district with its simple plaza and its original church are reminders of New Mexico’s Spanish past.