Santa Fe City Map Poster

About Santa Fe

The area was originally colonized by the Spanish in 1598 as part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. The settlement was named for Santa Fe (Holy Faith), referring to the Catholic faith and seeking to establish a town free from religious persecution which had been brought on by Protestant England's Queen Elizabeth I. The original name of Santa Fe is often said to have been La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco, meaning "the Royal Town of the Holy Faith" or "the Royal Village over which St. Francis presided". In 1851, William H. Burt and his survey party used that name in their reports about local place names; however, it did not become common until 1871 when it appeared on a map made by Fielding Bradford Meek.[7] It has since then grown into an alternative spelling for both this city and its New Mexican sister city,[8] Las Cruces.