Bernalillo
The Sandia Mountains from the Ruins of CoronadoState Park
Events
The Bernalillo Wine Festival is a yearly end of the summer highlight, drawing large crowds from nearby Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
Held the first weekend of September, local and national wineries pour their products for interested samplers.
A tradition dating back to the seventeenth century, the Fiesta of San Lorenzo is held each August.
The Fiesta features the dance-drama of Los Matachines, an intricate part of Spanish history since medieval times, along with the story of the re-arrival of the Spanish to the Indian lands at the end of the 17th century.
San Lorenzo ChurchHistory
Although the town was founded in 1695 by Don Diego De Vargas, the man who sought to re-conquer the “New Mexico” territory for Spain, the area had been inhabited by natives for centuries.
In 1540, Coronado had wintered at one of the Tiguex pueblos, and the spot remembered at the Coronado Monument.
By the 1700’s, the famed El Camino Real ran through Bernalillo, connecting Santa Fe to Mexico City, and by 1776, the town had become a hub of trade.
Wine making, introduced to the area in the 1620’s, became on of the cities major industries, along with ranching, mining, and timber.
More recently, the “Sheep King of New Mexico,” Jose Leandro Perea, a wealthy and powerful citizen of Bernalillo, opposed the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad to town in the late 1880’s.
To thwart the railroad ruining the sleepy village, he priced his land so high, the railroad decided to bypass the town and build 20 miles north in Albuquerque.
Many years later, Route 66 was built through town, improving tourism and trade. Both Route 66 and the Camino Real ran through town on what is now known as Camino del Pueblo.
Meems’ Coronado State Monument Visitors CenterThe WPA in Bernalillo
The Coronado State Monument was part of an excavation project begun in 1934 and paid for by the WPA.
The WPA project included the building of a visitors center, later renamed the John Gaw Meem Visitors Center after its noted designer.
The Center stands as a tribute to Meems’ “Pueblo Revival” style.
Coronado State Monument AdobeCulture
The Coronado State Monument is less than 2 miles off I-25. In 1540, Spanish explorer Coronado was looking for the fabled “Seven Cities of Gold” when he came across this Tiguex pueblo.
At first the natives welcomed the Spanish, but after several years of occupation, they revolted, but were crushed by Coronado.
Upon his return to Mexico, Coronado’s excursion was deemed a failure not only for the cruelties inflicted on the natives, but for his inability to find the non-existent “cities of gold.”
The monument features ruins dating to the 1300’s, as well as the well preserved “painted kiva,” one of the finest examples of prehistoric art in existence.
For more information on visiting Bernalillo, visit the city’s website.
Contact:
Maria Rinaldi
Community Development Director
Town of Bernalillo
P.O. Box 638
Bernalillo, NM 87004
Phone: 505.867.3311
