The statue of Our Lady of Loreto watches over visitors to the chapel, dedicated in Her name, in Goliad, Texas. The chapel dates back to the late 1760s and has been in continuous use since.
Lincoln Borglum sculpted the statue of Our Lady of Loreto. She stands in a niche above the chapel entrance. Among Borglum's other works, albeit on a slightly larger scale, is the Mount Rushmore national Memorial.
The Spanish established the Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahia in its present location in 1747. They built the Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto inside the fort for the soldiers and local people.
After the Seven Year's War, the Spanish rebuilt the Presidio in stone. When the new Presidio was completed in 1771 it was the only Spanish fort between the Rio Grande and the Mississippi. However, that's not the fort we see today.
Following Texas' Independence and subsequent joining the United States, there was no longer a need for the fort. Consequently, while the Chapel remained in use, the other structures fell into disrepair.
In the early 1960s, philanthropist Kathryn O'Connor funded the reconstruction of the Presidio la Bahia. In other words, what we see today is an artist's reimagining based on archeology and historic drawings.
Borglum installed his statue during the reconstruction of the fort. Interestingly, having remained in constant use, the Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto still retains its original groin-vaulted ceiling. Consequently, the chapel was added to the list of national Historic Landmarks in 1967.
I was curious as to the name, ‘Our Lady of Loreto.' I learned that Loreto is a hill town in the Italian province of Ancona on the Adriatic coast. Tradition has it that angels brought the house of the Virgin Mary to Loreto in 1295 or 1296. In short, ‘Our Lady of Loreto' is the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ.
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Image Processing:
For this image I:
- Cropped my original in Adobe Lightroom
- Edited in Skylum Luminar 4 to enhance colors and sharpness
Camera and Lens:
- Canon EOS 5D Mark III
- Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM
- Handheld at ISO400, 1/500 sec at f/16
Image Processing:
- Simple adjustments in Adobe Lightroom
- Color adjustments in NIK Color Efex Pro 5 by DxO
- Additional adjustments in Adobe Photoshop
