Located
at Santa Fe, New Mexico is a tiny church with a staircase that remains a
mystery to this day. Housed in a small Catholic Church, which is now a museum
operated under the auspices of the State, is a circular staircase which, under
all engineering principles, should collapse under its own weight and design.
This
Gothic designed staircase is completely unsupported without use of a center
pole to reinforce it. Originally there was no banister but two years after
construction one was added. How the staircase remains standing is a mystery.
The
year was 1852 when Bishop Lamy asked a congregation of nuns from Kentucky to
come west and start a school for the local children. At his request a small
group of the Sisters of Loretto made the trip by paddle steamer, wagon and on foot
to answer the Bishop’s request but found no provisions on arrival. First a
convent was constructed to house them and in 1873 a small church was built. And
this is when the mystery of the staircase came about.
The
tiny church was nearly completed when it was discovered there was no way to get
to the choir loft. The architect forgot to include stairs in his design. The
interior of the church was too small to construct conventional stairs and a
ladder was out of order. Stymied the nuns resorted to prayer to their patron,
Saint Joseph, the carpenter and foster father of Jesus.
Not long after an old man
with a tool case containing basic carpenter tools attached to a donkey arrived
and knocked at the door of the convent. He asked if he could be of assistance
and Mother Magdalen who was head of the congregation asked if he was a
carpenter. “Yes,” was the answer and she explained the problem of the choir loft
and no way to build stairs. The stranger said he believed he could build
something and the Mother Superior gratefully gave her consent to try.
In
eight months the project was complete. On examination a staircase was built
without use of any nails; only wood pegs was used in construction and the
entire staircase was built without any apparent support. But it worked!
When Mother Magdalen went
to pay the carpenter for his work she discovered he had disappeared. He never asked
for or been paid for his work. He simply vanished.
According
to Urban C. Weidner, a Santa Fe architect and wood expert, he had never seen a
circular staircase without a supporting center pole. A total of 33 steps go
from the floor to the loft. The wood used in construction is also unfamiliar and
not indigenous to New Mexico. Railroad records of the time show no shipment of any
of the materials used in building the stairs and no explanation has ever been
is given on how the material arrived or where it came from.
The
staircase is a magnificent example of precision. The work of a superior
craftsman is exemplified throughout. The splices, the fitting of joints and the
exactness of fitting astound all experts who have examined its construction.
Most baffling is how such an accomplishment could have been done with only the
rudimentary tools used by the elderly man who built the staircase.
The
little church was in daily use by the Sisters of Loretto Academy until the
State took over the property in the late 1960’s.
Visitors
to the chapel are awed by the beauty of the staircase. Under special permission
wedding couples are permitted to stand on the stairs for wedding pictures but
other than that people are prohibited to climb to the loft. Immediately
adjacent to the now abandoned church is a visitor’s center, hotel and gift
shop. Even though the church is no longer in use an overwhelming sense of
serenity, holiness and silence permeates throughout the interior. Visitors unconsciously
speak in whispered tones.
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