Santa Fe Plaza has witnessed multiple collisions between cultures over the centuries. This lovely public space was the final stop on the famous 19th-century wagon route known as the Santa Fe Trail. Starting in Independence, Missouri, the 800-mile trail served as a trade route between the U.S. and Mexico and as passage for marching soldiers and settlers seeking a better future.

The adobe-style San Miguel Chapel was built in the early 17th century by missionaries and Native Americans. This is the oldest church in the continental United States. In 1680, it became one of many targets in what some call “America’s first revolution.”

Georgia O’Keeffe once said, “Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things.” At the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, you can see how this iconic American artist translated her insights into world-renowned works of art. Over more than six decades, she produced a long list of stunning pieces, from precisely painted New York skyscrapers and rich mountainous landscapes to close-up abstracts of flowers and stark images of skulls juxtaposed with other, sometimes surprising objects, such as broken pottery.

Inside the New Mexico History Museum, you’ll find all the expected things: fossils, Native pottery, and a bounty of information about the tumultuous past and diverse people of this deeply intriguing state. But you’ll also discover a little-known chapter in American history: the story of the Harvey Girls.

The collection of the Institute of American Indian Arts (or IAIA) Museum of Contemporary Native Arts boasts nearly 10,000 progressive works from the genius of American Indian artists. The museum occupies the historic Santa Fe Federal Building, a fitting example of the Pueblo Revival architecture so prevalent in this city. The style imitates the traditional building techniques of the Pueblo people.

The Loretto Chapel was modeled after a famous church in Paris called the Sainte Chappelle. But it’s not the European-inspired architecture most people come to see. They’re drawn by the intriguing staircase inside that many have called a miracle.

The unique community along Canyon Road hosts more than one hundred art galleries and studios. It serves as the long, flowing bloodstream of Santa Fe’s internationally renowned art scene. The road’s identity as a thriving community of creators dates to the early 1900s, but the artists who were first drawn to Santa Fe came here not for its natural beauty and unique culture, but because they were dying.

Like so many great American institutions, the beautiful pseudo-Moorish, Spanish Renaissance Lensic Performing Arts Center was built by an immigrant with a quarter in his pocket.