When Jean-Baptiste Lamy arrived in New Mexico in the mid-19th Century, one of his great ambitions as the new head of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe was to build a grand Romanesque Revival cathedral, influenced by the stone churches of his native France. So Lamy brought to Santa Fe in 1879 a group of Italian stonemasons. Among them, from Abruzzo, was Carlo Digneo and his family.
Carlo's great-granddaughter, Santa Fe resident Adrienne Digneo, spoke with KUNM about the Digneo family and the other families of Italian stonemasons who built the landmark we know today as the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis.
Adrienne speaks in greater detail about the Digneo family in this more complete version of the interview.
adrienne_interview_long_version_final.mp3
