You probably have never heard of this unusual building, as well as the vast majority of people from other countries.
Meanwhile, in Santa Fe itself (New Mexico, USA), it is one of the most famous local attractions and when people ask to be taken to Loretto Chapel, rest assured that 99.99% of them go there to look at the “wonderful stairs”, and not on the chapel itself (quite beautiful, by the way).
The "Miraculous Staircase" is modestly huddled in the left corner of the Loretto Chapel. This is a beautiful spiral staircase, just over 6 meters high, leading to the upper floor. It is made of wood and at first glance seems to be elegantly executed, but quite an ordinary spiral staircase.
Without the stairs, the path to the upper floor would have been closed and the chapel would not have functioned as intended, so the problem was serious. How it was actually solved, no one knows, but a legend has reached us that the nuns reacted to this as a test of their faith and decided to pray to Saint Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. In prayers, they asked him to help with the construction of the stairs.
The nuns prayed for 9 days, and on the ninth day an unknown man entered the chapel. He led a mule with a large bag of carpentry tools. He entered the chapel and said that he was a carpenter and the nuns immediately told him about their problem. The man agreed to make the stairs, but with one agreement - he will work alone and so that no one interferes with him.
From that day on, a carpenter began working in the chapel. He came there late, when no one was there, and he worked alone, using only the most primitive tools. Bystanders saw next to him only a saw, a square ruler, wooden boards and buckets of water.
He was a little late with the agreed deadlines (according to another version of the legend, on the contrary, he completed the work ahead of schedule) and finished the stairs three months later, and when the nuns thanked him for the work, he disappeared as unexpectedly as he appeared, without taking any payment for the work.
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When the stairs began to be examined, it turned out that there was not a single supporting element, traditional for spiral staircases, while the staircase made two turns and stood firmly, ignoring the laws of physics with all its appearance. During its construction, not a single nail was also used, all the parts were fastened only with wooden pegs and glue.
The railing was added to the staircase only 10 years after its construction, and only because the monks were afraid to go down and up it. The ladder was very strong and withstood all the loads, but visually it seemed to people that just a little bit and they would fall from it.
Another still unresolved mystery of the Loretto staircase is what kind of wood it was made of. Researchers were only able to come to the conclusion that this is a spruce, but this type of spruce does not grow at all in these places. Moreover, the researchers were unable to figure out what kind of spruce it was.
True, it is not clear whether experienced botanists were involved in these studies, but the fact remains - it is not known about the Loretto staircase how it was built, nor who did it, nor from any wood. And this is not ancient antiquity, but only the end of the 19th century!
People who believe in mysticism are convinced that this staircase was built by none other than Saint Joseph himself, the father of Jesus. And the trees from which it is made are trees from the Garden of Eden, so they say it is impossible to find their counterparts among ordinary trees.
When the architects examined the Loretto staircase, they found out that the laws of physics were not actually violated there, it was just that everything was done so ingeniously and so carefully adjusted, as if calculated on a computer.
At the same time, the ladder is so strong that it can withstand the weight of 12 adults standing simultaneously on its steps.
