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Santa Fe, New Mexico is the second oldest continuously occupied town in what is today the U.S. (after St. Augustine, Florida in 1565), being founded sometime between 1604 and 1608.
Originally called Villa Real de Santa Fe de San Francisco, it was built on the site of an abandoned pueblo and became the capital of Spanish New Mexico, which for decades formed a province detached from the other Spanish holding to the south and comprised a 250 mile strip along the Rio Grande.
By 1630, Santa Fe had a population of 250 Spaniards, 700 natives and some 50 of mixed descent.
A native uprising in 1680 caused the destruction of the town and the departure of the Spanish for 13 years, at which time 800 colonists re-occupied Santa Fe. A brisk trade in pelts, sheep and wine developed and the town became entrepot of commerce in the Old Southwest, especially after Mexican independence and the opening of the Santa Fe Trail in 1821.
In 1848 Mexican territory north of the Rio Grande and Gila rivers passed to the U.S. and the 1880 appearance of the railroad in Santa Fe changed the town forever.
Facing the plaza of the old town is the old Governor's Palace, a low adobe structure used by Spanish, Mexican and U.S. governors through 1909. In this building, Gen. Lew Wallace (governor 1878-81) finished writing his book Ben Hur.
The chapel of San Miguel was built around the middle of the 17th century, rebuilt in 1710, but has been greatly altered in recent times.
The cathedral of San Francisco, it is said, is built on the foundations of church buildings going back to 1627.
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