San José de la Laguna Mission

The San José de la Laguna Mission church sits on a low hill above the village, its white-plastered walls and twin bell towers visible for miles across the high desert. Built in 1699 shortly after the Pueblo Revolt and the Spanish reconquest of New Mexico, it is one of the oldest churches in what is now the United States and arguably the most beautiful surviving example of Spanish Colonial religious architecture in the American Southwest.

The interior is remarkable: the original carved and painted wooden altar screen, known as a reredos, fills the entire east wall, and the whitewashed walls and ceiling are decorated with geometric patterns and images of saints executed in a distinctive Pueblo style. The overall effect is of a space that belongs equally to two traditions — the Spanish Catholic and the Pueblo Native — rather than having one imposed on the other.

The church is the center of Laguna Pueblo community life. The feast day of San José falls on September 19, and the September 15–19 feast celebrations draw Pueblo people from across the region for dances, food, and ceremonies that are open to respectful outside visitors.

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A story
The church was built beginning in 1699, when Spanish missionaries and Laguna Pueblo people worked together to construct it from the volcanic rock of the mesa. The stunning interior murals — images of saints, flowers, and geometric patterns — were painted by Pueblo artists who blended Christian iconography with their own artistic traditions. The building survived intact while most of the Southwest's Spanish missions crumbled or were destroyed.