Ancestral Sites Tour - The Second Church

The second Pecos Church was constructed using Native labor under the supervision of Fray Andrés Juárez. Finished in 1625, it was an impressive monument to the missionary effort. Its buttressed stone foundations are the only visible remains. They stretch 150 feet from altar to entrance and are 22 feet thick in places. The foundations of the altar area are to your right and of those of the entrance are to your left—a reverse of the present standing church’s layout. Archaeologists estimate that builders used three hundred thousand 40-pound adobe bricks to complete the structure. The building’s architecture—with exterior buttresses, white-washed walls, and six bell towers—contrasted sharply with the pueblo it served.  

Fray Juárez taught the Pecos people to build with adobe bricks made using wooden forms. They were used to working with mud, as some of the early pueblos were constructed by building up walls using layers of mud. The use of forms to create bricks made possible the construction of a huge religious structure, one of the largest in the southwest at the time. The new religion itself was foreign, too. To the Pueblo people, the Christian concept of a single church representing one god contrasted with their many kivas centered on the rhythms and harmonies of nature. 

This church functioned for 55 years. During the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Pueblo people revolted against the Spanish, resulting in the only successful expulsion of a European colonizer in the New World. Po’pay, a Tewa leader from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo (formerly San Juan Pueblo), organized this attack on missions and Hispanic settlements. The church roof was burned and its adobe walls torn down. Many Pueblo people resented Spanish attempts to suppress the Native religion and the use of Native people for labor and goods. The people longed for the days before the Spanish colonizers. 

The Spanish returned in 1692 under Don Diego de Vargas and reestablished Santa Fe as the provincial capital. At Pecos some people supported the Spanish presence, while others resented it. According to historical Spanish documents, the Pecos people claimed Tewas from other pueblos destroyed the church during the revolt and some Pecos warriors assisted Don Diego de Vargas during the Spanish reoccupation of Santa Fe.