Boulder, Colorado - M. Gerwing Architects blog posts for M. Gerwing Architects
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For many years, I have been taking trips to the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. This area feels very different from either the Front Range or the Western Slope and is marked by tiny settlements and the vase expanse of the wide valley. Of particular interest to me are the simple chapels and churches, dotted across the landscape, some lovingly cared for, others abandoned.
SdC chapels 01
As a bit of a follow up to a post from last year on the small village chapels in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, I recently took a trip down to the Sangre de Cristo mountains. This range is in southern Colorado and makes the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley. On this most recent trip I ventured to the other side of these mountains to look into the chapels and buildings still existing.
SdC chapels 02
What is most striking is the very clear morphology of these churches along the eastern side of the Sangre de Cristos, compared with the much wider variety of forms and materials employed in the San Luis Valley. As you can see, most of these chapels are simple, single-gabled longitudinal structures. This forms remains fairly consistent even though the building material may vary from stucco-covered adobe to wood framing. Equally consistent is the appearance of a simple, open-framed steeple and a diamond, usually square, window centered in the end gable.
SdC chapels 04
SdC chapels 03
About half of the chapels I visited were abandoned, in various states of decomposition.
San Luis chapel 03
I have finally gotten around to processing some more film from a very rewarding trip to the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado last year.
San Luis chapel 04
San Luis chapel 02
San Luis chapel 01
I will certainly be going back there again this year, later in the Spring when the heavy snows have past but before the major snowmelt swells all the local rivers and streams. I hope to have much more interesting historical and cultural info on the various locales than in the past.
