Picture this plaza in 1706, when governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdés founded the town for Nuevo México's Spanish crown. This is a place layered with earlier lives; before it became a Spanish provincial town, Diné, Pueblo, Apache, Tiwa and other indigenous peoples lived here. You stand amid about ten blocks of historic adobe buildings gathered around Old Town Plaza.
On the plaza's north side is San Felipe de Neri Church, a Spanish colonial church constructed in 1793, its presence anchoring the plaza through centuries. The district is recognized on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties as the Old Albuquerque Historic District and is protected by a special historic zoning designation by the city. Today Old Town hums with restaurants, shops, and galleries and is home to the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History; a short distance to the northeast you can find the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and the Explora science center.
In winter the plaza is famous for its luminaria displays, especially on Christmas Eve. Notice the adobe facades framing the plaza, with San Felipe de Neri Church anchoring its northern edge.