Plaza & Canyon Road Walk

Welcome to Santa Fe, and to the Plaza, a National Historic Landmark laid out in the style of traditional Spanish-American colonial cities. It dates back to the early 17th century, when the Spanish settled Santa Fe. Spanish law required towns with a regional governor's office to have a plaza where the palace guard could assemble. The original plaza was a fortified presidio, enclosed by a defensive wall.

It stood at the end of El Camino Real, the Royal Road from Mexico City. After Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, the Santa Fe Trail opened, a trade route to Missouri with its western end right here. Wagon caravans camped on the plaza and unloaded their goods. Trees and paths came in the territorial era.

Today it's a gathering place with grass, trees and benches, and home to the Fiestas de Santa Fe, the Spanish Market and the Santa Fe Indian Market. At Christmas it's decorated with farolitos and luminarias.

This long adobe building is the Palace of the Governors. It was established as the capitol of the Spanish colony of Nuevo México in 1610, when the new governor, Pedro de Peralta, began its construction. The palace stayed the seat of government for centuries, until 1901. It saw the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Spanish return in 1693, Mexican independence in 1821, and American territorial status in 1848, when it became the territory's first capitol.

In the late 1870s, territorial governor Lew Wallace finished writing his novel Ben-Hur here. He remembered writing the climactic crucifixion scenes one stormy spring night in 1879, after a tense meeting with Billy the Kid. He worked by a shaded lamp in the shuttered study, fearing a bullet through the window during the Lincoln County War. From 1909 to 1913, the young archaeologist Jesse Nusbaum restored the building.

It served as the state history museum until 2009, and it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.