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Bishop's Lodge
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States · Auberge Resorts · Core Luxury
Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy built his adobe chapel in Little Tesuque Canyon in 1874. Auberge reopened the 317-acre ranch in July 2021 after a $75 million HKS renovation, 100 rooms in about twenty adobe buildings against Santa Fe National Forest. SkyFire cooks over open fire in a room that hosted Colorado River Compact talks.
- 100 rooms
- Opened 2021
- Neighborhood: Tesuque
- Architect: Nunzio Mark DeSantis; HKS
- Interiors: ROAM Interior Design
About Bishop's Lodge
- Lamy's 1874 Territorial adobe chapel is on the National Register and now hosts yoga.
- James Thorpe turned the canyon into a guest ranch around 1918; the Pulitzers later kept a western home here.
- Auberge bought it in 2017; Nunzio Mark DeSantis and HKS led the 2021 reopen.
History
The canyon north of Santa Fe that holds Bishop's Lodge has been inhabited for centuries. Spanish settlers grew wheat, corn, and beans in Little Tesuque Canyon and raised livestock on its mesas; before them, Pueblo peoples had lived on this land for generations. The modern story of the property begins with Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the French-born cleric who arrived in Santa Fe in 1851 as New Mexico's first archbishop and spent the following decades building the institutional architecture of the Catholic Church in the American Southwest. Lamy commissioned a small adobe chapel at his canyon retreat in 1874, a three-room structure perched on a hillside above the valley floor, surrounded by orchards and gardens that became his refuge from the administrative demands of his diocese. The chapel ; a Territorial adobe with adobe walls, a Gothic-style altar, and the spare dignity of the frontier church ; was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, and stands today as the oldest structure on the Bishop's Lodge property.
After Lamy's death in 1888, the land passed through a series of owners before James Thorpe acquired the property around 1918 and began transforming it into a guest resort, capitalizing on the increasing number of visitors making their way to Santa Fe by rail and automobile. By 1928, when the chapel was formally restored, Bishop's Lodge was a functioning resort hotel. It subsequently became the western home of the Pulitzer family, and the main lodge built in the early twentieth century became the social center of a property that hosted U.S. presidents and figures from American publishing and political life across the mid-century decades.
Auberge Resorts acquired Bishop's Lodge in 2017 and undertook a seventy-five-million-dollar renovation led by the international design firm HKS and architect Nunzio Mark DeSantis, reopening the property in July 2021 with 100 rooms spread across approximately twenty adobe buildings on 317 acres that border 1.5 million acres of Santa Fe National Forest. The chapel was carefully restored to its 1874 appearance ; fresh white paint, a cedar-shingle roof, the Gothic altar intact ; and deconsecrated as a place of religious observance but preserved as a meditation and yoga space where guests still encounter the physical atmosphere Lamy created a century and a half ago. SkyFire, the resort's open-fire restaurant serving New Mexican cuisine, occupies a dining room where, in the 1920s, negotiations for the Colorado River Compact ; the agreement still governing New Mexico water rights ; were conducted. The land, the canyon, and the chapel give Bishop's Lodge a depth of historical layering that is unusual even by the standards of Santa Fe, a city not short of antiquity.
The setting
Tesuque, in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains north of Santa Fe. 3.5 miles from Santa Fe Plaza. 5.7 miles from Santa Fe Opera.
Restaurants and bars
- SkyFire — Restaurant · Mexican
- Two Dogs Cafe — Café
Experiences
- Stream Dance Spa — Spa rooted in ancient ritual and Mother Nature's healing power; treatments include sound bathing, chakra balancing, Ayurvedic facials, shamanic healing.
- SkyFire restaurant — Signature restaurant serving wood-fired, regional Southwestern cuisine, with a window facing the sunset.
- Fly fishing at Fly Fishing Outpost — Onsite stream for fly fishing lessons, with full immersion classes and private fishing in the Valles Caldera.
- Horseback riding — Trail rides with views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, sunrise and sunset rides, and horse clinics.
- Coyote Camp Kids Club — Kids' club teaching wilderness survival tips and custom cowboy hat design.
- Chocolate Immersion — Chocolate history experiences run with local Kakawa Chocolate House, including a 1.5-hour Chocolate Immersion.
Amenities
- Spa
- Pool
- Equestrian
- Hiking
- Hot tub
- Fitness center
- Kids' club
- Yoga
- Pet-friendly
Awards
- Forbes Travel Guide Recommended (2026)
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