History
The Reredos of Our Lady of Light is a monumental carved and painted stone altar screen now installed at the Cristo Rey Church on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. The reredos was originally commissioned in the eighteenth century for the military chapel known as La Castrense on the Santa Fe Plaza, a chapel that served the Spanish presidio and that for a time stood as the most elaborately ornamented Spanish Colonial sacred space in the province.
The screen is carved from a soft local limestone in the late Baroque tradition that Spanish colonial sculptors brought to New Mexico from central New Spain. It is organized into tiers framed by Solomonic columns and entablatures, with niches containing relief figures of saints, evangelists, and the central image of Our Lady of Light. Polychrome paint and gilding survived in patches and have been carefully studied and conserved. The reredos stands more than twenty feet tall and is one of the only surviving stone retablos of its scale in the United States.
When La Castrense was sold and demolished in the nineteenth century, the reredos was removed and placed in storage and subsequently in the cathedral. In 1940 it was reinstalled at Cristo Rey Church, a large adobe parish church then newly built on Canyon Road specifically to receive the reredos and to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the Coronado expedition. The Cristo Rey building itself, designed by John Gaw Meem in a Spanish Colonial mission idiom of massive adobe walls and twin towers, was sized around the screen.
The reredos was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 in recognition of its art-historical significance. The church remains an active parish and the reredos is accessible to visitors during open hours. Within the broader Spanish Colonial tradition of New Mexico, the Reredos of Our Lady of Light is the single most ambitious surviving sculptural object, anchoring the religious art history of the colonial period and giving its purpose-built adobe church its unmistakable identity.
Common questions
What is the Reredos of Our Lady of Light?
The Reredos of Our Lady of Light is a historic stone reredos carved in 1761 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It has been described as the only one of its kind from the Spanish period in the United States and as one of the most extraordinary pieces of ecclesiastical art in the country.
When was the Reredos of Our Lady of Light created?
The Reredos of Our Lady of Light was carved in 1761. It was originally installed in the Chapel of Our Lady of Light on the Santa Fe Plaza, and is now housed in Cristo Rey Church, which was built in 1940 for the express purpose of holding the reredos.
Where is the Reredos of Our Lady of Light located?
The Reredos of Our Lady of Light is housed in Cristo Rey Church at the corner of Canyon Road and Cristo Rey Street in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was originally installed in the Chapel of Our Lady of Light on the Santa Fe Plaza.
Can you visit the Reredos of Our Lady of Light?
The Reredos of Our Lady of Light is housed inside Cristo Rey Church, an active parish church in Santa Fe. Public access is generally available subject to the church's worship schedule and visitor policies.
Who created the Reredos of Our Lady of Light?
The Reredos of Our Lady of Light has been attributed to Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco (1713-1785), a Spanish artist and cartographer who came to Santa Fe in the 1750s.
Why is the Reredos of Our Lady of Light historically significant?
The Reredos of Our Lady of Light was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 under reference number 70000411. It is recognized as the only surviving Spanish-period stone reredos of its kind in the United States.
