Large adobe church with two-tiered towers
Architecture,  History,  Monochrome Madness,  New Mexico,  Squares,  Travel galleries

Gallery: seeing mission churches in black and white

January 10, 2025 / 52 Comments

In early memory

Mission music

Was ringing ‘round my nursery door

Paul Simon, Under African Skies

When the Spanish invaded and conquered much of the American south west, one of their first acts was to build missions. They claimed they were saving the souls of the indigenous ‘heathens’ but they had a much more worldly agenda. Their motivation was to subdue, control and in due course employ the local population to exploit the resources of their newly acquired territory.

The missions provided a base from which to pacify resistance and introduce European ways, not just of worship but also agriculture and lifestyle. They also brought European diseases to which the native people had little or no acquired immunity.

At the heart of each mission was its church:

Of earth, stones, and timber, but mostly earth, hulking pylonlike in silhouette, heavy, inert, functional, seemingly immutable but ever crumbling—praised, damned, and belatedly praised again—the Spanish mission churches of New Mexico issued from a union of European ideals and an outlandish environment.

https://npshistory.com/publications/kessell/nm-missions/introduction.htm

While their origins may lie in conquest and subjugation, the mission churches in New Mexico are undeniably beautiful. The adobe structures were modelled on European notions of what a church should look like, adapted to local materials. Edges were softened, decorations minimalised. It’s impossible to carve adobe as you can stone, but in the place of ornate carvings was a more simple, organic beauty.  

The typical church included an artio, a walled yard in front of the church that sometimes served as a cemetery. One or two corner towers flanked the front walls of most, usually topped by a wooden cross and a bell. The large wooden door at the centre of the front wall led into a large, windowless interior space, usually without benches or seats. Worshippers stood or knelt on the earthen floor.

For this week’s Monochrome Madness our host Dawn has asked us to share images of Places of Worship. A great choice of theme but how was I to be selective among the hundreds of such photos I must have taken over the years, and all over the world?! I decided to focus on a single destination and have chosen New Mexico because the Spanish missionary churches there are so beautifully simple. Their adobe structures and clean lines seemed perfect to meet another challenge at the same time, Becky’s Geometry Squares. After all, why take on one challenge if you can take on two at once?! By the way, if you’d prefer to see some images of these churches in colour, have a look at my 2021 post, Following the High Road to Taos.

My feature photo, not squared, is of the church in Socorro

Large adobe church with three white crosses

San Francisco de Assisi, Ranchos de Taos, famously photographed by Ansel Adams

San Francisco de Assisi, Ranchos de Taos

Detail of a corner on an adobe building
Detail of a corner on an adobe building

San Francisco de Assisi, Ranchos de Taos

San Francisco de Assisi, Ranchos de Taos

to see more of my photos taken here have a look at my gallery from four years ago

Curved and angular adobe walls
Adobe church with crenelated roof and small wooden cross

San Lorenzo de Picuris

San José de Gracia Church, Las Trampas

Adobe church with two small towers
Adobe tower with wooden cross

A tower of San José de Gracia Church, Las Trampas

Nuestra Senora del Sagrado Rosario, Truchas

Simple adobe church with squat tower
White cross

Above the gate of San Geronimo de Taos, Taos Pueblo

Bell tower of the old San Geronimo de Taos, Taos Pueblo

(destroyed by cannon fire during the Mexican-American War, 1846, but left standing)

Stone and adobe bell tower
Looking up at a solid adobe church with two towers

San Esteban, Acoma Pueblo

See my earlier post for more about this pueblo, one of the most fascinating places I have ever visited.

I visited New Mexico in 2011

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