formity.^ In comparison to moradas of the L-plan,*' 

 and even of the pre- 1856 T-plan strurture at Arroyo 

 Hondo/* the two pcnitentc buildings at Abiquiu pre- 

 serve a simple I shape with one significant varia- 

 tion — a contracted chancel. 



The basic form of the Abiquiu moradas (Figures 5 

 and 6) is a rectangular box that closely resembles 

 nearby houses. Even the long, windowless north facade 

 of both Abiquiu moradas recalls the unbroken walls 

 of earlier Hhpano houses in hostile frontier regions. 

 The Abiquiu moradas, however, possess one exception 

 to the domestic form — a narrowed, accented end. On 

 each morada the west end is blunted and buttressed by 

 a salient bell tower of stones laid in adobe mortar and 

 strengthened by horizontal boards (Figures 7 and 8). 

 This innovation in the form of the Abiquiu moradas 

 appears to be ecclesiastic in origin. 



Plans of churches built close to Abiquiu in time, dis- 

 tance, and orientation could have served as sources 

 for the design of the moradas" west ends (Figure 9). 

 Only five kilometers east of Abiquiu stood the chapel 

 dedicated to Santa Rosa de Lima. As shown in Figure 

 9F, the sanctuary in its west end had a raised floor 

 and flanking entiy pilasters, features found in the east 

 rnorada's west end. This chapel was dedicated about 

 1744 and was still active as a visiia from Abiquiu in 

 1830.*' Through this period and to the present, the 

 popularity of Saint Rose of Lima has persisted at 

 Abiquiu. Her nearby chapel would have been a likely 

 and logical choice for the design of the rnorada's 

 sanctuary end. 



A second possible source for the contracted ends of 

 the Abiquiu moradas would be the south transept 

 chapel of the Third Order of St. Francis at Santa Cruz 

 (Figure qe) . It was completed shortly before 1798'''' 

 and served Franciscan tertiaries into the 1830s. Plans 

 compared in Figure 9 indicate that the dimensions of 

 this left transept chapel at Santa Cruz measure only 



46. Bainbridge Bunting, Taos Adobe! (Santa Fe, 1964), 



P- 54- 



47. L-plan moradas are pictured by Woodward [see ftn. 

 13] in a 1925 photograph at San Mateo, a different morada 

 from that illustrated in Charles F. Lummis, Land of Poco 

 Tiempo (New York, 1897), as well as in another Woodward 

 photograph [see ftn. 13] taken on the road to Chimayn. L. B. 

 Prince, Spanish Mission Churches of New Mexico (Cedar 

 Rapids, 1915), shows an L-plan morada near Las Vegas 

 Was the L-plan house an unconscious recall of the more 

 secure structure that completely enclosed a placita'? 



48. Bunting, p. 56. After i960 the Arroyo Hondo morada 

 became the private residence of Larry Franks. 



49. AASF, Loose Documents, Mission, 1829 (May 27). 



50. KuBLER, Religious Architecture, p. 103. 



PAPER 63: THE PENITENTE MORADAS OF ABIQUIU 



five percent larger than the chapel room of the east 

 morada at Abiquiti, and the plans also reveal con- 

 tracted chancel walls at both locations. 



The concept of a constricted sanctuary as seen in 

 Abiquiu moradas originated in earlier Spanish and 

 Mexican churches. In 1479, architect Juan Guas used 

 a trapezoidal apse plan in San Juan de los Reyes at 

 Toledo and, by 15 12, the design found its way into 

 America's first cathedral at Santo Domingo. Within 

 the first century of Spanish colonization, contracted 

 sanctuary walls appeared on the American mainland 

 in Arciniega's revised plan for Mexico City's Cathedral 

 (post- 1 584) ^' and, again, in New Mexico, where it 

 first appeared at the stone mission of Zia, built about 

 1 61 4 (Figure 9c). Once established in the Franciscan 

 pro\'ince, the concept of converging sanctuary wal-is 

 survived the 1680 Indian revolt and returned with the 

 reconquest of New Mexico in 1693. Spaniards raised 

 and rebuilt missions from the capital at Santa Fe (San 

 Miguel, rebuilt 1710; Figure 90) north to Taos (San 

 Geronimo, 1706). Throughout the i8th century, in a 

 three-to-one ratio, the churches of New Mexico used 

 the contracted, as opposed to the box, sanctuary. 



In the early igth century, churches at Ranchos de 

 Taos (1805-1815 ■": Figure go), Chimayo (about 

 1810; Figure qh), and Cordova (after 1830: Figure 

 91) continued to employ the trapezoidal sanctuary 

 form. By midcentury, pcnitcnte brotherhoods are 

 known to have been active in these villages, and the 

 local ecclesiastic structures could have acted as an 

 influence in the design of the penitente moradas at 

 Abiquiu. 



In summary, the moradas at Abiquiu are traditional 

 regional buildings in material and in basic form. The 

 pointed west end of each building, however, is an ec- 

 clesiastic innovation in an othenvise typical domestic 

 design. These moradas provide a significant design 

 variant in the histor>- of Spanish-American architec- 

 ture in New Mexico. 



Interior Space and Artifacts 



The plans of the two penitente moradas of Abiquiu 

 (Figure 4) reveal an identical arrangement of interior 



51. George Kubler and Martin Soria, The Art and 

 Architecture of Spain and Portugal and Their American 

 Dominions, 1500 to 1800 (Baltimore, 1959), PP- 3. ''4, 74. 



52. E. Boyd, interview, April 1966. Building date of about 

 I 780 usually is given for the present church. Boyd, however, 

 states that documents in AASF support the tree-ring dates 

 given in Kvhlf.r. Religious Architecture, p. 121, as i8i6±io. 



\i:-> 



