The first church between Durango, Mexico, and St. Louis, Missouri, to attain cathedral status was intended to resemble great cathedrals of Europe. Unlike other local churches, it is not built in adobe style. Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy recruited Italian masons to assist in the 1869-86 construction of the French Romanesque structure, which overlooks the east side of the Plaza. In a niche in the wall of the north chapel-itself predating the cathedral, having been built of adobe in 1714-is a 13C wooden statue, "La Conquistadora," believed to be the oldest representation of the Madonna in the US. Brought to Santa Fe in 1625, it was rescued from an earlier church during the 1680 Pueblo Rebellion and returned 12 years later as a symbol of Spain's reconquest.