Loretto Chapel

[Tapioca]

I saw a story on this place on Unsolved Mysteries. I was excited to go here when I was travelling to Santa Fe! The staircase was cordoned off of course and it was musty and not very exciting. It was tiny and I would probably collapse the whole staircase if I stood on it lol. The church was part of an expensive restaurant and hotel I would not recommend. BTW If you are ever in Santa Fe you MUST try green chili sauce! Not like anything else in the world.

I read a story that it was really built for a church in Europe but they did not send it. So they surprised the nuns with this miraculous staircase that didn't use nails or glue! I found out that is a regular type of construction especially in Japan for hundreds of years. Also, way to go not building handrails!!

The Loretto Chapel is a former Roman Catholic church in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, that is now a privately owned museum and a wedding chapel.

It is known for its unusual helix-shaped spiral staircase (the "Miraculous Stair"). It has been the subject of legend, and the circumstances surrounding its construction and its builder were considered miraculous by the Sisters of Loretto, who credited Saint Joseph with its construction.

According to the version of events passed down by the Sisters of Loretto, multiple builders were consulted but were not able to find a workable solution due to the confined quarters. In response, the nuns prayed for nine straight days to Saint Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the last day of the novena, a mysterious stranger appeared and offered to build the staircase. He worked alone using only a few simple hand tools and disappeared afterwards without collecting his pay or the Sisters learning his identity. More fantastical versions of the story have the work taking place overnight, while according to others, it took six to eight months.

The finished staircase was an impressive work of carpentry, seeming to defy physics as it ascended 20 feet (6.1 m) without any obvious means of support. The Sisters of Loretto viewed its construction as a miracle and believed that the mysterious builder must have been Saint Joseph himself. As the story spread, the staircase became one of Santa Fe's most famous tourist attractions.

The staircase as originally built lacked handrails and was reportedly so frightening to descend that some of the nuns and students did so on their hands and knees. Eventually, railings were added in 1887 by another craftsman, Phillip August Hesch. The stairs have been mostly closed to the public since the chapel became a privately run museum in the 1960s.

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