Albuquerque is the largest city and capital of the US state of New Mexico. The town was founded in 1706 as La Vila de Alburquerque and named after the Spanish viceroy who had the title of Duke of Alburquerque. The city was then part of the Kingdom of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and was laid out according to traditional Spanish patterns with a central plaza. The area became an American territory in 1846, and Albuquerque became a growing garrison town that had a population of 3,000 in 1859.

The railroad came to town in 1880, and as a result New Albuquerque was built east of the old Spanish town. In the year 1900, trams ran in the city, which had also got a university and 8,000 inhabitants. In 1926, Route 66 came to Albuquerque, and this brought a growing in tourism to the city. Later, air bases were established around Albuquerque, which later in the 20th century expanded to still more suburbs, and which in recent decades has experienced a revitalization of the city center.

Today, you can walk around Albuquerque’s Old Town, which dates to the Spanish era. In the middle of the district is Old Town Plaza, and the streets around it are full of low buildings, which is unusual for large American cities. There are shady trees at the Old Town Plaza, where there are also several shops and restaurants as well as the San Felipe de Neri Church.

The church was built in 1793, and it therefore dates from the Spanish colonial period. In the later Victorian era, the style of the church was changed with addition of the neo-Gothic towers to give the building a more European appearance from the time. Most of the other buildings in Old Town date from the latter half of the 19th century.

In the outskirts of Old Town, you can visit the Albuquerque Museum, which is an interesting museum of art and history. Here you can learn more about the history of the city and the region, including the Spanish colonial history, and at the museum you can see art and a sculpture garden as well. Spanish history has also influenced post-colonial Albuquerque, an example of which is the Alvarado Transport Center, located on the site of the city’s first railroad station from 1880.

At the station, the Alvarado Hotel was opened in 1902 and for many years it was an iconic hotel in the Spanish colonial style. The hotel was demolished in 1970, and when the Alvarado Transport Center opened in 2002, it was in a design that imitated the defunct hotel.

Between Albuquerque’s old Spanish town center and the Alvarado Transport Center, you can see the modern downtown business district, where the Plaza District is the streets where the city’s high-rises stand side by side. One of the best-known is Albuquerque Plaza at 107 meters in height. Close by, you can take a walk in the city’s entertainment district, where you will find most of downtown’s old and interesting buildings.

The neighborhood is centered in and around the streets Central Avenue and Gold Avenue, and you can e.g. see the KiMo Theater from 1927, which was built in the so-called pueblo deco architecture that mixed art deco with the old Spanish style. The office building Occidental Life Building from 1917 is also interesting with its architecture that was inspired by the Doge’s Palace in Venice. The 43-meter-tall First National Bank Building was completed in 1923 and is considered Albuquerque’s first skyscraper.