"Historic Santa Fe, New Mexico" a Santa Fe Travel Page by AlbuqRay

Santa Fe blends Native American, Spanish and Anglo cultures into unique architecture, wonderful art, museums and excellent restaurants. It truly is "the city different." The center is the historic Plaza, where El Camino Real (the Spanish Royal Road from Mexico City), the Old Santa Fe Trail, and the Old Pecos Trail intersected.

The irony about Santa Fe is that it has become such a popular place to visit/live, that the majority of the local people, the essence of its charm, can no longer afford to live in town. Sure you can see the vendors under the portico at the Palace of the Governors and participants at the fiestas, but you will not have to spend much time in Santa Fe to understand what I mean. Another issue is the shear number of people trying to see one-of-a-kind places or eat at unique restaurants.

The picture is a night time view east down San Francisco Street (south side of the Plaza) toward the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi at Christmas time.

The Palace of the Governors is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States. Situated on the north side of the Plaza, Native American vendors sell their wares under the portico year-round.

Wikipedia tells us... In 1610, Pedro de Peralta, the newly appointed governor of the Spanish territory covering most of the American Southwest, began construction on the Palace of the Governors. In the following years, the Palace changed hands as the territory of New Mexico did, seeing the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Spanish reconquest from 1693 to 1694, Mexican independence in 1821, and finally American possession in 1846.

Since 1909, when the New Mexico state legislature established the Museum of New Mexico, the Palace of the Governors has served as the site of the state history museum. In 2007, following an extensive archaeological excavation on the land immediately north of the Palace, construction of the New Mexico History Museum began adjacent to the Palace building. The new history museum, when opened in 2009, will include interpretive exhibitions on New Mexico's colonial past housed within the Palace of the Governors building.