Santa Rosa de Lima was an early 18th century Spanish settlement in the Rio Chama valley, near the present-day town of Abiquiu in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. In the 1730s Spanish settlers moved into the Chama River valley, and by 1744 at least 20 families were living in the present-day Abiquiú area, where they founded the Plaza de Santa Rosa de Lima. The church was built around 1744, and was in use until the 1930s. Raids by Utes and Comanches caused the settlement to be abandoned in 1747. In 1750, the Spanish founded a new settlement at the present site of Abiquiú, about 2 miles north of Santa Rosa de Lima.
Today the site of Santa Rosa de Lima is a ghost town, with substantial adobe ruins of the church, and mounds where the settlers adobe houses stood. The site is private property, belonging to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
References edit
- Pueblo de Abiquiú – A Genízaro Community by New Mexico Office of the State Historian
- History of Abiquiu , timeline with cites