the famous Plaza

The focal point of downtown Santa Fe - in some ways exactly how I remembered it, in some ways not. The Palace of the Governors, seen here on the north side of the Plaza, was built in 1610 and is the oldest continually used building in the United States. It was the administrative capital of the New Mexico territory under the Spanish, Mexican and U.S. governments. Today it houses the Museum of New Mexico while the portico serves as a marketplace for Native American arts and crafts.