South of the central plaza area, to either side of Hwy-68, Ranchos de Taos was originally a separate community, composed of the farms that fed the town of Taos. Each rancho had its own main house, or hacienda ; one has been restored as a museum of colonial life. The Hacienda Martínez (daily: April-Oct 9am-5pm; Nov-March 10am-4pm; $5), two miles southwest of the plaza on Ranchitos Road, was built in 1804 by Don Antonio Martínez, an early mayor of Taos. Within its thick, windowless, adobe walls - sealed like a fortress against still-prevalent Indian raids - two dozen rooms are wrapped around two patios, holding animal pens and a well. Trade goods of the kind Don Antonio once carried south along the Rio Grande are displayed alongside tools, looms and simple furnishings.

In Ranchos' small unpaved plaza, the mission church of San Francisco de Asis turns its broad shoulders, or more accurately its massive adobe buttresses, to the passing traffic on Hwy-68. Built around 1776, it's one of colonial New Mexico's most splendid architectural achievements, with subtly rounded walls and corners disguising its underlying structural strength. Though the ever-changing interplay of light and shade across its golden exterior has fascinated painters from Georgia O'Keeffe onward, the interior is equally intriguing, with a magnificently ornate green-and-red reredos (altarpiece) framing several naïve paintings.

Ranchos de Taos

• Ranchos de Taos

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