Loretto Chapel & the Miraculous Staircase

The story begins in 1852, when the Sisters of Loretto answered Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy's call to come west and educate the daughters of Santa Fe. They founded the Loretto Academy on this site and, by the early 1870s, wanted a proper chapel for the school. Lamy, a Frenchman who had earlier hired French stonemasons for his cathedral project up the street, brought in Antoine Mouly to design a Gothic Revival chapel in miniature, modeled on Sainte-Chapelle. Construction took five years and produced a structure of cut sandstone with ribbed-vault ceiling effects rendered in painted lath and plaster — a remarkable feat of Gothic detailing in the middle of the adobe Southwest.

When the chapel was finished in 1878, however, there was a problem. The architect had died (or returned to France, depending on the source) before the choir loft was completed, and the loft itself sat 20 feet above the chapel floor with no staircase. Conventional stairs would consume too much of the tiny nave, and the loft was too high for a ladder. The Sisters, the story goes, made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth day, an itinerant carpenter appeared at the door with a donkey and a few hand tools, asked for the job, and worked alone for several months. When the staircase was complete, he is said to have left without payment and without giving his name.

Modern researchers have offered a more grounded candidate: Francois-Jean Rochas, a French-born craftsman who lived in northern New Mexico in the late 19th century and was murdered at his homestead in 1895. Period account books and a death notice that called him "the man who built the staircase at the Loretto Chapel" support the case. But the Sisters' original records remain silent, and the chapel today preserves both versions of the story — pious mystery and historical reconstruction — side by side. Visitors are welcome to choose.

What sets the staircase apart engineering-wise is the combination of geometry, material, and joinery. The structure is a true double-helix spiral, with the outer stringer carrying most of the load through compression along its curved length, acting essentially as a slender wooden arch coiled in three dimensions. There is no central pole — most spiral staircases use one as both visual and structural anchor — and the connection points at the top (to the choir loft) and at the floor are the only fixed points. The inner stringer functions partly as a counterweight and partly as a tensile element, and a later set of brackets was added in the 20th century to dampen sway under heavy use.

The wood itself has been subjected to several material studies. Microscopic analysis has identified it as a spruce species, although the exact provenance — possibly a non-native species not commonly seen in New Mexico — has fueled some of the lingering mystery. The treads, risers, stringers, and balusters are joined with wooden pegs rather than nails or screws, and the entire structure was originally built without a handrail; the railing visible today was added about 1887. Restorations over the years have replaced a small number of failing parts and added discreet steel hardware for safety, but the original carpenter's work still dominates the structure visitors see.

If you arrive expecting a clear technical revelation, you may leave with more questions than answers. Engineers who have studied the staircase agree it is unusual and elegant but not, in the strict sense, impossible — the geometry of compression in a curved stringer can carry the load if the wood is tight-grained and well-joined. What's harder to explain is how a single craftsman with hand tools, working in a tiny Santa Fe chapel in the 1870s, conceived and executed a structure that modern carpenters can describe but few would attempt without computer modeling. The miracle, if you want one, lives somewhere between the geometry and the skill.

The chapel is privately owned, located on the grounds of the Inn at Loretto and steps from the historic plaza. Tickets are inexpensive and sold at a small shop attached to the entry. You can usually walk in without a reservation, though midday hours in July and August often have lines that move quickly. Photography is allowed — including video — and the staff is generous about giving visitors time at the staircase, which is roped off at the base so you cannot climb it. Plan about 20-30 minutes inside, longer if you want to study the stained-glass windows imported from the DuBois Studio in France or sit quietly in a pew.

Combine Loretto with the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis just one block north, plus the Plaza another block beyond. All three can be walked comfortably in a single afternoon, even with a stop for lunch on the plaza. If you're staying at the Inn at Loretto, the chapel sits in your front yard and is an easy pre-breakfast stop before the day crowds arrive. The chapel is wheelchair accessible at ground level, though the staircase itself is roped off to all climbers regardless of ability.

The chapel hosts a busy schedule of weddings, especially on Saturdays, and may close to general visitors during ceremonies. Check the official website before you go, particularly in spring and fall when the wedding calendar is dense. The chapel does not function as an active Catholic parish, so don't expect Mass — for that, walk one block to St. Francis Cathedral. For travelers on a tight Santa Fe schedule, Loretto is the rare attraction that delivers a complete story, a famous artifact, and a genuine moment of wonder in less than half an hour. It is, in many ways, Santa Fe in miniature: small, layered, beautiful, and impossible to explain in one sitting.