The name of la capilla, which means "the chapel", was given to the area because of the long adobe chapel that once stood there.

The first chapel on the site was replaced within a year of its construction by a larger adobe chapel, which burned in the 1806 fire.

But in northern New Mexico where dozens of historic adobe churches have melted into the beige landscape in recent years, the Vigil clan rallied around their adobe chapel.

Around the time of Bernardo's death in 1858, a small adobe chapel, Iglesia de San Antonio, was built about 1,000 yards southwest of the residence.

In the 1890s the adobe chapel was so weathered that a wooden church was built a few yards away on the west side.

About the time the adobe chapel was built, a plot of land on the hill overlooking the hacienda to its southeast was set aside as the Yorba Cemetery.

Today, the adobe chapel is the only remaining structure from that time period.

They married themselves, which is allowed under Colorado law, in an adobe chapel filled with candles and young couples, many carrying babies and cameras.

The mission, founded on Nov. 1, 1776, is home to a tiny adobe chapel, the oldest church in California, where candles flicker and the air smells pleasantly waxy.

Construction on a stone church to replace the adobe chapel of the town of El Salitre began in 1905.