This monument is near Punta de Agua, eight miles north of Mountainair
off State Highway 10.
The ruins of the mission church of the Immaculate Conception at Quarai
are unsurpassed in grandeur of architecture or setting by any that
survive from the labors of the early Franciscans in New Mexico. Built of
red sandstone masonry about 1628, at the Pueblo of Quarai, it was
abandoned along with the pueblo about 1674, chiefly because of Apache
depredations.
One of the most venerated of the Franciscan missionaries, Fray Geronimo
de la Llana, worked and died at Quarai, beloved by his Indian charges.
His remains now rest in a crypt in the wall of St. Francis Cathedral in
Santa Fe. The ruins have been excavated and repaired for permanent
preservation.