Image: Route 66, Santa Fe, New Mexico (cropped)

Description: Santa Fe is the capital of the United States state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of Santa Fe County. Santa Fe is also the oldest capital city in the United States. Santa Fe (meaning “holy faith” in Spanish) had a population of 69,204 in 2012.The city’s full name when founded was La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís (“The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi”). Don Juan de Oñate led the first effort to colonize the region in 1598, establishing Santa Fe de Nuevo México as a province of New Spain. In 1610, he made it the capital of the province, which it has almost constantly remained, making it the oldest state capital in the United States. The Spanish laid out the city according to the “Laws of the Indies”, town planning rules and ordinances which had been established in 1573 by King Philip II. The fundamental principle was that the town be laid out around a central plaza. On its north side was the Palace of the Governors, while on the east was the church that later became the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. The city is well known as a center for arts that reflect the multicultural character of the city; it has been designated as a UNESCO Creative City in Design, Crafts and Folk Art. The city and the surrounding areas have a high concentration of artists. They have come over the decades to capture the natural beauty of the landscape, the flora and the fauna. One of the most well-known New Mexico–based artists was Georgia O'Keeffe, who lived for a time in Santa Fe, but primarily in Abiquiu, a small village about 50 mi (80 km) away. By an ordinance passed in 1957, new and rebuilt buildings, especially those in designated historic districts, must exhibit a Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, with flat roofs and other features suggestive of the area's traditional adobe construction. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe,_New_Mexico en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
Title: Route 66, Santa Fe, New Mexico (cropped)
Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/68731589/
Author: Ken Lund
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
License: CC BY-SA 2.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes