Santa Barbara, the queen of missions

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

 

The Santa Barbara Mission was established on the Feast of Saint Barbara, December 4, 1786 by Padre Fermín Lasuén (who had taken over the presidency of the California mission chain upon the death of Father Presidente Junípero Serra) and was the tenth of twenty-one California Missions to be founded in Alta California.  It is called “The Queen of the Missions.”  Mission Santa Barbara is the only mission to remain under the leadership of the Franciscan Friars since its founding, and today is a parish church of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  Mission Santa Barbara's name comes from the legend of Saint Barbara, a girl who was supposedly beheaded by her father for following the Christian Faith.

The early missionaries built three different chapels during the first few years, each larger than the previous one. It was only after the great Santa Barbara Earthquake on December 21, 1812, which destroyed the existing buildings, that the construction on the current Mission was begun. It was completed and then dedicated in 1820. The towers were considerably damaged in the June 29, 1925 earthquake, but were subsequently rebuilt in 1927. The appearance of the inside of the church has not been altered significantly since 1820.

Many elements of the Mission's extensive water treatment system, all built by Chumash Indians' labor (including aqueducts, two reservoirs, and a filter house) remain to this day, as does a grain mill; the larger reservoir, which was built in 1806 by the expedient of damming a canyon, has been incorporated into the City's water system. The original fountain and lavadero are also intact near the entrance to the Mission.  The lavandaria end spout is a neophyte-carved Cougar's head and is the oldest public sculpture in the state of California.

In 1818, two Argentine ships under the command of the French privateer Hipólito Bouchard approached the coast and threatened the young town of Santa Barbara. The padres armed and trained 150 of the neophytes to prepare for attack. With their help, the Presidio soldiers confronted Bouchard, who sailed out of the harbor without attacking.

After secularization in 1833 Father Presidente Narciso Durán transferred the missions' headquarters to Santa Barbara, thereby making Mission Santa Barbara the repository of some 3,000 original documents that had been scattered through the California missions.

In 1840, Alta California and Baja California were removed from the Diocese of Sonora to form the Diocese of Both Californias. Bishop Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM, established his cathedra at Mission Santa Barbara, making the chapel the pro-cathedral of the diocese until 1849.  It is for this reason that of all the California missions, only the chapel at Mission Santa Barbara has two matching bell towers.

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get your copy today!

 

Mission Santa Ines, cornerstone of a Danish town

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

Founded on September 17, 1804 by Father Estévan Tapís, the mission site was chosen as a midway point between Mission Santa Barbara and Mission La Purísima Concepción, and was designed to relieve overcrowding at those two missions and to serve the Indians living east of the Coast Range. It was named Mission Santa Inés Virgen y Martír, for Saint Agnes of Rome, a thirteen year-old Roman girl martyred in A.D. 304.  It was the 19^th mission to be founded in Alta California.

Most of the original church was destroyed on December 21, 1812 in an earthquake centered near Santa Barbara that damaged or destroyed most of California's missions. The quake also severely damaged other Mission buildings, but the complex was not abandoned.  A new church was dedicated on July 4, 1817.  During 1814 to 1816, a large adobe wall was constructed to hold two bells. New bells were cast in Lima, Peru, and the formal dedication took place on July 4, 1817. The bell wall lasted until 1911 when a huge rainstorm literally melted it. When Father Buckler had it rebuilt the following year, a third bell arch was added.

On February 21, 1824 a soldier beat a young Chumash Indian and sparked the Chumash Revolt of 1824. Some of the Indians went to get the Indians from Missions Santa Barbara and La Purísima to help in the fight. When the fighting was over, the Indians themselves put out the fire that had started at the Mission. Many of the Indians left to join other tribes in the mountains; only a few Indians remained at the Mission.

In 1843, California's Mexican governor granted 34,499 acres of Santa Ynez Valley land to the first Bishop of California, who established at the Mission the College of Our Lady of Refuge, the first seminary in California. The college was abandoned in 1881; by then the Mission was disintegrating. A family lived there in the 1890s and did some repairs, but much of the complex collapsed in 1894.  The Danish town of Solvang was built up around the Mission proper beginning in 1911. It was through the efforts of Father Alexander Buckler in 1904 that reconstruction of the Mission was begun.

 

Mission Santa Inés has the largest and most valuable collection of early California church vestments from the 15th century to 1718, having been the depository for vestments from the earlier successful Missions in Baja California and Mexico. Many of the more than 500 silk vestments throughout the California Missions are in fact older than the Missions themselves. Mission Santa Inés also has a vestment worn by Father Serra. That the vestments have been so well preserved is a tribute to the work of Mamie Goulet, the niece of Father Alexander Buckler, who dedicated 20 years to preserving the mission’s art and artifacts.   

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get your copy today!

Mission La Purisima reenacts the past

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

Misión La Purísima Concepción De María Santísima (Mission of the Immaculate Conception of Most Holy Mary) was founded by Father Presidente Fermin de Lasuén on December 8, 1787 (on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception) and was the 11th of the Missions in Alta California.  The site originally chosen for La Purísima Mission was known to the Spanish as the plain of Rio Santa Rosa and to the Chumash as Algsacpi. Permanent missionaries and soldiers did not arrive at the site until March of 1788. The first padres assigned to La Purísima were Father Vicente Fuster and Father Joseph Arroita.

A major earthquake struck La Purisima on December 21, 1812, destroying many of the Mission's structures. Aftershocks and drenching rains damaged La Purisima beyond repair.   Ruins of the original mission are at 508 South F Street, near East Locust Avenue (more information on Mission Vieja on pg 268).

 

Father Mariano Payeras, then in charge of the Mission, requested and was granted permission to rebuild four miles to the northwest in "La Cañada de los Berros," the Canyon of the Watercress. This new site had several advantages: a better water supply, a better climate, and a closer and safer access to El Camino Real.  The rebuilt mission (completed between 1813-1818) was laid out in linear fashion, the only California mission not organized as a quadrangle.

Between the years 1788 - 1834 La Purisima harvasted 189,276 bushels of wheat, barley, corn, beans, peas, lentils, garbanzos (chickpeas) and habas (broad beans). This was the third largest agricultural output in the mission chain. There were two large vineyards, Jalama 8 miles south of the mission and San Francisoto, 2 miles east.  The peak number of livestock was 23,746 in 1822 (10,000 cattle, 11,000 sheep, 46 goats, 104 pigs, 1367 horses and 247 mules).

 

In 1824 a revolt of the neophytes that began in Santa Ines spread to La Purisima. The rebels captured the mission and held it for about a month. In the battle sixteen Indians and one soldier died. Seven Indians were condemned to death.

In 1834, the order to secularize California's Missions was enforced. Mission assets were to be civilly administered, landholdings divided up among the inhabitants, and the neophytes released from supervision of any type. In 1845, La Purisima Mission was sold to Juan Temple of Los Angeles for $1,000. It subsequently changed hands and uses a number of times prior to the close of the 19th century.  Buildings and other features of the Mission eventually collapsed from weather and long neglect. In 1933 when the property was given to public ownership by Union Oil Company, the Mission was a complete ruin. Preservation and reconstruction of the Mission complex began in 1934.

 

At present, the mission is within La Purisima Mission State Historic Park, an area of 1,928 acres - a small but most important portion of the original 300,000 acre mission property. Ten of the original buildings have been fully restored and furnished authentically; other structures have also been restored including the historic aqueduct and water system.  A five-acre garden shows native and domestic plants typical of a mission garden, while mission-type animals such as burros, horses, longhorn cattle, sheep and goats are displayed in a corral located in the main mission compound (the only mission to keep livestock).  This is the most fully restored of all missions, and features many reenactments throughout the year.

A new visitor center has recently been completed.  Built in a modern style, it sits apart from the mission complex.  It houses a comprehensive exhibit of the mission and surrounding region’s history from ancient times through the modern period.

 Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get your copy today!

Mission San Luis Obispo is L-ovely

 

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

The fifth California mission was founded by Father Junipero Serra on September 1, 1772, and was named after Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, France. Louis was born in 1274, the second son of King Charles of Naples. After being defeated in a war with Spain, Louis and his brother were sent, as hostages, to Spain for the release of their father. The brothers spent seven years in Spain, being instructed by Franciscan friars. Having absorbed the training, Louis decided to join the Order. After his release, he renounced his claim to the crown of Naples, joined the Order of Friars Minor, and was consecrated Bishop of Toulouse. Due to poverty and disease in the city, he fell ill and passed away at the age of 23.

After Fr. Serra left, the difficult task of actually building the mission remained. This was accomplished with the aid of the local Chumash Natives. Palisades were set up as temporary buildings, which were made simply from poles and tree boughs. However, due to fires in the first few years, adobe and tile structures were erected. The Church and Priest’s residence, the convento wing, were built by 1794. Many other structures made up the Mission in the early days: storerooms, residences for single women, soldiers barracks, and mills.

The Mission church of San Luis Obispo is unusual in its design in that its combination of belfry and vestibule is found nowhere else among the California missions. The main nave is short and narrow (as is the case with other mission churches), but at San Luis Obispo there is a secondary nave of almost equal size situated to the right of the altar, making this the only "L"-shaped mission church among all of the California missions.

The mission also had land for farming and raising livestock. Over the years 1804 - 1832 San Luis Obispo produced 167,000 bushels of wheat, barley, corn, beans, peas and lentils. Despite its relatively small population, it had the fourth highest production of wheat in the entire chain. The mission even had its own grist mill. San Luis Obispo had grape arbors within the mission quadrangle and there was a garden in the northeast corner.  1832, the last year for which we have detailed records, the mission had 2,500 cattle and 5,422 sheep.

After 1818, the Mission’s prosperity began to decline and by the 1840′s there was little left of the thriving community of earlier times. The buildings were crumbling and there were not sufficient funds to rebuild. In an “informe” (report to the Government written in 1830) Fr. Gil stated: “The hospital and portions of neophyte villages are in ruins and the rest of the village threatens to fall into ruins… the front of the Mission Church has to be taken down, because it threatened to tumble over”. In his 1832 “informe” he was even more dismal: “Every day the Mission structures are decaying more and more for want of sufficient hands to renovate them… the belfry mentioned last year has been demolished by rains therefore we built another of masonry.”

Governor Pio Pico sold the San Luis Obispo Mission to Capt. John Wilson for $510 in 1845. During this time, buildings were appropriated for any use deemed necessary by the civil authorities. The Mission convento wing housed a school as well as a jail and first county courthouse. It was returned to the church by the U.S. in 1850. 

Since then, it has been the parish church for the city.  At one point it was remodeled to look like a New England style church with a steeple, but it has since been restored to its original appearance.

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get your copy today!

Mission San Miguel, beware of the trees!

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuén founded Mission San Miguel on July 25, 1797. Almost two years earlier, the site was selected to close the gap between Mission San Antonio and Mission San Luis Obispo. It was a beautiful spot on the Salinas River called Vahca by the natives, Las Pozas by the Spaniards or "The Wells". The mission was named for the "Most Glorious Prince of the Celestial Militia, Archangel Saint Michael". Father Buenaventura Sitjar, the first administrator at Mission San Miguel had ministered to the Salinan people for 25 years at Mission San Antonio prior to his arrival at Mission San Miguel. Father Sitjar was fluent in the Salinan language and baptized 15 youth the first day Mission San Miguel was established.

A temporary church was built in 1797 but was lost to fire in 1806, at a time when more than one thousand neophytes were living and working at Mission San Miguel. Preparation for a new adobe church began soon after. Tiles and adobe blocks were made and stored for 10 years before the stone foundation of the church was laid in 1816. By 1821 the church was completed along with the interior frescos.  A colonnade which leads to the church contains twelve arches of different sizes and shapes, unique among the California missions.  The fountain in front of the mission is not original (it was built in the 1940s); the design was adapted from the fountain in Mission Santa Barbara.

 

Mission San Miguel never had a traditional bell tower. In the mission era bells were hung from a wooden beam in one of the archways. The bell which currently hangs there was cast in Mexico City in 1800. A bell tower located inside the mission cemetery houses three bells, the largest of which weighs 2,000 pounds and was recast in 1888 from six cracked and broken bells from other missions. This bell tower was designed and built in mid 1930s. The large bell is used to sound the Angelus. There is another bell tower at San Miguel, a brick companario located on the south end of the mission property. The bells which hang in it are not real, but cast in cement. This bell tower was built in 1950s.

Mission San Miguel was secularized in 1834 and put under the control of a civilian administrator and at the time, there were only 30 Indians left at the mission. On July 4, 1846, Petronillo Rios and William Reed took possession of the mission Buildings and the Reed family occupied the recently abandoned mission. Following the murder of 11 Reed family members and household staff, the mission rooms were converted to commercial stores including a hotel, saloon, and retail shops.  President Buchanan returned the mission buildings and surrounding property to the Catholic Church in 1859. A resident priest was assigned to Mission San Miguel in 1878 and the mission parish was established.

On the morning of December 22, 2003 the coast was rocked by a 6.5 earthquake, the largest to strike the region in over 50 years.  Old Mission San Miguel, located just 35 miles from the epicenter, was especially hard hit. All of the Mission's buildings were rendered off-limits to the public. Numerous cracks and fractures appeared in many of the Mission's walls. Entire sections of plaster sloughed off, exposing the vulnerable adobe beneath to the elements.  It has since been restored.

The mission is now a novitiate for training young Franciscan men.  Many parts of the mission are closed to the public.

This mission is also the home of the funniest parking lot signs I've ever seen:

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get your copy today!

 

Mission San Antonio, the mission that forgot time

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

Located on eighty pristine acres on what was once the Milpitas unit of the sprawling Hearst Ranch, Mission San Antonio de Padua sits within the “Valley of the Oaks.”  It is called “the mission that forgot time,” and rightfully touts itself as the “most authentic” mission.

On July 14, 1771, Padres Junipero Serra, Miguel Pieras and Buenaventura Sitjar hung the bells on the branches of an oak tree and named this mission San Antonio de Padua. Fr. Pieras and Sitjar were left with a small group to start the Mission.

The mission was named for St. Anthony, called "St. Anthony of Padua" because of his long residence in that city, was a native of Lisbon in Portugal, where he was born in 1195, receiving the name of Ferdinand at his Baptism. Even during his lifetime, he was regarded as a legendary hero and striking miracles were related about him: his sermon to the fish at Rimini, the mule that knelt before the Blessed Sacrament, the Psalter that was stolen and returned (of which he has become the patron of those who have lost something), and the story of how his host saw him holding the Child Jesus in his arms when he looked through his window.

 

The first Catholic wedding to take place in California occurred here in 1773 between a Salinan Indian woman named Margaretta de Cortona and Spanish solider Juan Maria Ruiz. San Antonio de Padua was the first Alta California mission with a fired-tile or teja roof, and the very first with over 1,000 neophytes. San Antonio de Padua was known for the excellence of its music. Displays in the museum show musical notations on the walls and a large diagram of hand signals used to teach the neophytes.

This mission quickly became self-sufficient. Over the years it was an active mission San Antonio harvasted 110,000 bushels of wheat, barley, corn, beans and peas.  In its peak livestock year of 1828 the mission had 20,118 animals, including 8,000 cattle and 10,000 sheep. For practicality the herd was dispersed to several locations. Ranchos San Benito and San Bartolomo del Pleyto were used for sheep and lambs. There were cattle ranches at Los Ojitos and Rancho San Miguelito, all within three to ten leagues (10-30 miles) of the mission.

 

After secularization, the church was abandoned. In 1845, Mexican Governor Pío Pico declared all mission buildings in Alta California for sale, but no one bid for Mission San Antonio.  However, in 1851, Fr. Doroteo Ambris, a young priest who came as seminarian from Mexico, came from Monterey and took up residence at San Antonio. A few Indian families lived at the Mission with him.  The United States government gave the mission back to the Church in 1863.  In 1882, Fr. Ambris died, and the church was again abandoned and began to fall into greater disrepair.  Later, William Hearst bought the mission and surrounding land.  He eventually sold it to the US government. Fort Hunter Liggett now encompasses the mission, and though they own the mission itself, the management is entirely left to volunteers and supported by donations.

The extensive restoration and unspoiled setting of San Antonio de Padua makes this one of the most picturesque missions in California. It has an extensive museum with a number of exhibits displaying various aspects of daily life at the mission. The site also boasts the most complete, and largely unrestored, Mission-era water control system in California.

Mission San Antonio is the best example of the greater mission environment, due to its undisturbed surroundings and numerous intact buildings and structures.

 

For the ultimate mission experience, stay overnight!  There is no food service available.  The mission also has group retreat accommodations and special pricing.

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get your copy today!

Mission Soledad welcomes you!

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

La Mision de Maria Santisima, Nuestra Senora Dolorosisima de la Soledad (Mary Most Holy, Our Most Sorrowful Lady of Solitude) was founded by Father Fermin Lasuen on October 9th, 1791 near the site of an Esselen village named Chuttusgelis.  Mission Soledad is the thirteenth mission to be founded in California.

Father Payeras, Father Jayme, Father Ibanez and Father Sarria were four of the padres who provided the most dedication and time to the Soledad Mission.  They kept the records and organized the growth.  The winds could be brutal and the weather bitterly cold.  When the padres needed relief from rheumatism they would go to Paraiso Hot Springs for the mineral baths.  They learned of the medicinal value of the mineral baths from the Esselen who lived in this area.

By 1810 the quadrangle was completed and included a chapel, church, four granaries, offices, mill, creamery, hen house, tallow factory, kitchen, guest rooms, unmarried women’s quarters, two warehouses, carpenter’s shop and quarters, guard house, corporal’s quarters, quarters for the padres, forge, soap factory, apothecary, shoemaker, tannery, tile kilns, privy, pantry, grist mill, lavenderia, weavery, and possibly a fulling tank for wool production.   There was also a vineyard with five thousand vines and an orchard. 

A fifteen mile aqueduct brought water to the mission from the Arroyo Seco River.   Neophyte housing was built in the form of three long adobe buildings which had twenty-six rooms.   It appears that the Soledad Mission specialized in wool production and weaving.  At one time there were over five thousand sheep grazing the lands surrounding the mission as well as over six hundred horses and six thousand head of cattle.  The mission owned three ranches:  San Lorenzo, San Vicente and San Fernando.

 

José Joaquín de Arrillaga, the first Spanish governor of Alta California, died at Soledad in 1814 during a mission tour, and was buried in a Franciscan habit beneath the floor of the church destroyed in 1824. Soledad became the principal headquarters of the President of the California Missions, Fr. Mariano Payeras, in the wake of Bouchard's raid on Monterey (1819-1822).

Most of Mission Soledad was destroyed by three large floods in 1824, 1828, and 1832 which irreparably damaged the buildings.  As Mission Soledad was secularized and neglected the buildings were further destroyed. In 1845, interim Governor Pio Pico sold the mission to Feliciano Soberanes for eight hundred dollars.  Eventually, the mission was abandoned and fell further into disrepair. 

A copy of the original mission bell, cast in Mexico City in 1794, hangs on a wooden beam to the left of the church entrance. The original is kept inside the church.  Both the exterior and interior of the chapel are quite simple. Colorfully painted reredos, stenciled wall decorations and original oil paintings of the Stations of the Cross adorn the sanctuary. There is also an original painting of Our Lady of Refuge in the museum. 

 

Mission Soledad feels more like a community church than a historical site. They see very few tourists, but their staff is among the most friendly and welcoming of any of the missions.

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get a copy here.

Mission Carmel, a saint's favorite

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

Though the founding date is June 3, 1770, the original location was the cathedral San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey.  The current mission was relocated to Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1771.  The second of the Alta California missions, it was named for Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, Italy. It was the site of the first Christian confirmation in Alta California.  

It was the headquarters of the original upper Las Californias Province missions headed by Father Junípero Serra from 1770 until his death in 1784.  It was his favorite mission.  He is buried beneath the chapel floor.

Farming was not very productive and for several years the mission was dependent upon the arrival of supply ships.  The Esselen and Ohlone Indians who lived near the mission were taken in and trained as plowmen, shepherds, cattle herders, blacksmiths, and carpenters. They made the adobe bricks, roof tiles and tools needed to build the mission. In the beginning, the mission relied on bear meat from Mission San Antonio de Padua and supplies brought by ship from Mission San Diego de Alcalá. In 1794, the population reached its peak of 927, but by 1823 the total had dwindled to 381. 

The mission was in ruins when the Roman Catholic Church regained control of it in 1863. It has since been rebuilt to its original appearance.

The Basilica Church, a registered National Historic Landmark, is the centerpiece of the Mission. The Basilica has a catenary ceiling, thirty foot reredos and 5 foot thick walls. The Mission’s collection of Spanish Colonial Liturgical Art and Artifacts are displayed through the church. The Harry Downie Museum, located in the forecourt to the Basilica, houses interpretive displays and artifacts devoted to telling the restoration story of the Mission and the significance of Harry Downie’s efforts in the restoration. Adjacent to the Basilica, the Jo Mora Chapel Gallery houses the elaborate Serra Memorial Cenotaph, sculpted in 1924 by Jo Mora, of travertine marble and bronze. This museum is also the home to an art exhibit which changes periodically. 

 In Convento Museum is the cell used by Blessed Junipero Serra and where he died in 1784. Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.”  Get your copy here!

Mission San Juan Bautista, a step back in time

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

Mission San Juan Bautista was founded on the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, June 24, 1797, as the fifteenth of the twenty-one Missions. It is also called La Misión del Glorioso Precursor de Jesu Cristo, Nuestro Señor San Juan Bautista (The Mission of the Glorious Precursor of Jesus Christ, Our Lord Saint John the Baptist). 

The mission was built overlooking the San Andreas Fault. Construction of the present Church began in 1803 and continued for nine years. The sandstone foundation goes to a depth of five feet. The adobe walls are four feet thick.  It is the widest Church in the Mission chain.

 

To the left of the Mission are the Padres’ living quarters and guest rooms. This building has since been converted into a museum, the rooms containing ecclesiastical vestments, Indian Relics, rare religious books and Victorian furniture of the latter Mission Era.  The mission's collection of books and art works are in many cases older than the mission. Some of the fine vestments in the museum are from China, Russia and Venice, and were used at the mission as recently as the 1930's.

Padre Esteban Tapis is buried in the sanctuary of the church. He was, at one time, Presidente of the Missions and he is founder of the Mission Santa Ines. When he retired from office he came to San Juan Bautista where his musical talents brought fame and a new name to San Juan, "the mission of music." Two of his handwritten choir books can be seen in the Museum.

 

Interior completion of the church continued through 1817 when the floor was tiled and the main altar and reredos (which holds the six statues) were completed by Thomas Doak, an American sailor who jumped ship in Monterey. He painted the reredos in exchange for room and board.

There are animal prints in the tiles of the church floor that were made while the tiles were left outside to dry in the sun. Another unusual feature is the "Cat Door" carved into the blue side door in the Guadalupe Chapel. This allowed cats access at all times to catch mice.

In 1906, there was a violent earthquake that shook the greater part of central California. The side walls of the church collapsed. They were restored in 1976. Vestiges of the original El Camino Real can still be seen north of the cemetery.  The "convento" wing is all that remains of the quadrangle that had enclosed the gardens. The kitchen served 1,200 people three times a day.

The cemetery on the north side of the church contains the remains of over 4,000 Christian Native Americans and Europeans. Ascencion Solorzano, the last pure blooded Native American of this mission, is buried in the cemetery. Her grave is marked by a red cross and a plaque has been placed on the wall above her grave in her memory.

The Old Mission San Juan Bautista has had an unbroken succession of pastors since its founding.  This is one of the few missions that has been an active church since its founding, and many of its visitors come for worship, not sightseeing.

 

San Juan Bautista offers the best opportunity to see and appreciate the California of 160 years ago. There are some 30 historic buildings in the 12-block area surrounding the Spanish Plaza (the only original one remaining in the state) including the Mission's original adobe manjerio (nunnery), since renamed Plaza Hall, the fomer cuartel (Soldier's barracks) retrofitted by Angelo Zanetta in 1858 as the Plaza Hotel, a one room jail, a stagecoach livery stable, and a pioneer’s log cabin.

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get a copy here!

Mission Santa Cruz: murder, pirates and more!

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.  

The mission was founded on August 28, 1791 by Padre Fermin Lasuen, and named for the feast of the Exultation of the Cross.  The mission was flooded as the San Lorenzo swelled with the rains that winter. Over the next two years, the padres set out to rebuild the mission on the hill overlooking the river. The night of December 14, 1793, Mission Santa Cruz was attacked and partially burned by members of the Quiroste tribe who inhabited the mountains to the east of Point Año Nuevo. The attack was purportedly motivated by the forced relocation of Indians to the Mission.  The mission was looted in 1818 by the residents of the nearby pueblo of Branciforte after the mission's inhabitants fled under threat of pirate attack by Hypolite de Bouchard.  The front wall of the adobe mission, built in 1794, was destroyed by earthquakes in 1857. A wooden facade was added and the structure converted to other uses.

Santa Cruz ranked in the bottom 25% of the California Missions in the size of its livestock herd (9,236 in 1832).  Approximately 75,000 bushels of grain and produce were produced over the active life of the mission.

 

The current Gothic-style Holy Cross Church was built on the site of the original mission church in 1889, and it remains an active parish of the Diocese of Monterey. In 1931, Gladys Sullivan Doyle proposed to construct a half-size replica of the original Mission next door to the modern church. She contributed all of the construction costs, on the condition that she would be buried inside. Her grave can be viewed in a small side room. The small replica chapel is mainly used for private services for the Holy Cross Church. An adjoining room functions as a gift shop. A stone fountain from the original mission complex stands in the garden behind the gift shop.  The original mission church, whose bell tower collapsed in 1840, contained nine or ten bells, none of which have survived. The mission replica has a 20th century bell hanging in tower.

Today's Plaza Park occupies the same location as the original plaza, at the center of the former Mission complex. The complex at one time included as many as 32 buildings. The first autopsy in California was performed at this mission on Fr. Andres Quintana in 1812, to determine the cause of his death (the neophytes were suspected of having murdered him).

 

The only surviving Santa Cruz Mission building has been restored to its original appearance and functions as a museum of the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park: this portion of the adobe, built in the early 1800’s, had been Indian family housing, the only example of its kind still standing in California today.

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get your copy!

Mission Santa Clara, the 5th time's a charm

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.   Though they largely fell into disrepair shortly before the region became a state, they have since been revived and rebuilt as fascinating historic landmarks.

On Jan. 12, 1777, Father de la Peña said the first Mass at the new Mission Santa Clara de Asís (though at this point the mission consisted only of a cross and a makeshift altar under a tree).  A few days later, Father Murguía arrived from Monterey with the supplies and religious articles.   Mission Santa Clara was the the eighth mission to be founded in California.  The mission was named for Saint Claire of Assisi, a 13th century Italian nun, cofoundress with Saint Francis of the Order of Poor Clares.  It is located in Santa Clara, on what is now the campus of Santa Clara University.

By the end of that year, the padres and their assistants had completed the church and the priests’ residence; another house was under construction. All the buildings were of upright logs with dirt roofs.  This promising beginning, however, was wiped out in a year later when the Guadalupe River overflowed its banks. Although they valued the river as a water source, Peña and Murguía realized that the flood danger made the mission’s location inadvisable. Salvaging everything they could, they moved to an interim site on higher ground to the south. Here they began again, setting up new log buildings and digging new irrigation ditches. Father Serra blessed the second, temporary, church on Nov. 11, 1779.

By 1781 they had found a permanent location for the mission: far enough away from the river to be safe from floods, but close enough to allow an irrigation canal to bring water to the fields. On Nov. 19, 1781, in an elaborate ritual, Father Serra blessed and laid a cornerstone for the third Mission Church. In a cavity in the cornerstone were placed a crucifix, religious images, and Spanish coins to signify the Church treasury. (The cornerstone was later accidentally found by a workman digging for a gas main along Franklin Street in 1911. The cornerstone and its contents are on display in the Mission Room of the University’s museum.)  The was completed 2 1/2 years later, in May 1784. Unlike the two previous temporary churches, which were built of wood, the permanent church was an imposing adobe structure 100 feet long, 22 feet wide and 20 feet high. The four foot thick adobe walls were whitewashed inside and out and decorated with a painted border on the interior. Unfortunately, Father Murguía, who had designed the church, died four days before the dedication ceremony, which was held May 15, 1784. Father de la Peña reported that "the celebration was carried on amid the ringing of bells, salutes from the muskets of the soldiers and with the fireworks on the Mission." The following day, Sunday, May 16, Father Serra celebrated the first Mass in the new church.

 

In 1818, the Mission Church suffered severe damage in an earthquake.  Construction of a new permanent mission compound at this final site began in 1822. The church, residences, workshops, and storerooms were laid out in a large quadrangle. (The only remaining structures from this period are now known as the Adobe Lodge, which houses the University’s Faculty Club, and the Adobe Wall. They formed the southwest corner of the square.) The new church was dedicated Aug. 11, 1825. This building, with various modifications, stood until 1926.

Mission Santa Clara was secularized Dec. 27, 1836.  It operated as a parish during the 1830s and 1840s.  In December of 1850, however, the new bishop of California, donated the buildings and land in order for the Santa Clara College to be founded.

 

Over the next 70 years, the old buildings underwent successive renovations.  The final "remodeling" of the Mission Church occurred on Oct. 24, 1926, when faulty wiring set off a fire in the church’s north bell tower. A priest saying morning Mass gave the alarm, and students and faculty tried valiantly to save the historic old building. The church, sadly, was totally destroyed, although students did manage to rescue many statues and paintings, including one of the Holy Family that has hung in the Mission since 1889, other liturgical objects, and one of the mission bells, which rang the De Profundis for the dead that night, as it had for a hundred years.

 

Encouraged by a flood of sympathy and donations, the University administration began reconstruction of the destroyed church almost immediately. Rather than a duplication of the church that had burned, the restoration attempted to recapture the appearance of the 1825 church before its many remodelings. The church was again made wider than the original because it had to serve as the University chapel. The façade, however, returned to its original one-tower design, although it was eventually embellished with carved wooden statues of the saints instead of painted decorations. The decorations of the interior also followed the original lines, except that the patterns on the walls were painted in pastel pink and blue instead of the original brilliant red and yellow. Careful copies were made of the destroyed Mexican reredos and Dávila’s painted ceiling. The current Schantz pipe organ was installed in 1975 and was a gift of Mr & Mrs. Foster McGraw (the original mission would not have contained any instruments, the Gregorian Chants sung there would have been without instrumentation).  It contains an original bell, as well as a replica of a bell given to the Mission by King Carlos IV.  The bells of Santa Clara have rung faithfully each evening since 1798 by request of King Carlos IV. 

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get your copy!

Mission San Jose, the mission of music

The 21 California missions were the first permanent European settlements to be founded on the West coast, beginning in 1769.   Though they largely fell into disrepair shortly before the region became a state, they have since been revived and rebuilt as fascinating historic landmarks.

Mission San Jose was founded on June 11, 1797 by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen on a site which was part of a natural highway by way of the Livermore Valley to the San Joaquin Valley.  The Mission's first permanent adobe church was dedicated with great ceremony on April 22, 1809.   The mission was named for Saint Joseph, husband of Mary.

By the end of the first year it had population of 33 newly-converted Catholic Indians.  By the end of 1805 nearly all the east bay peoples were at the missions. A devastating measles epidemic reduced the mission population by one quarter in 1806, but the population rebounded with an influx of native peoples from neighboring regions.

 

Father Durán became the pastor of the mission in 1806.  He trained the residents in music, organizing both a choir and a 30 piece orchestra that became famous throughout California.

Mission San Jose, which was well managed and located in an area with rich soil, had the second highest agricultural production of the 21 missions (approximately 289,000 bushels of grain and produce). San José also had extensive olive and fruit tree orchards and there was a large vineyard near the mission quadrangle. San Jose rapidly became known for the quality of its olive oil, fruit and produce. 1832, the mission had 12,000 cattle, 11,000 sheep, and 1,100 horses.

The Mission entered a long period of gradual decline after secularization in 1834.  During the California Gold Rush, H. C. Smith converted the Mission to a general store, saloon and hotel.  In 1853, the church became the local parish church. Some of the original exterior adobe buttresses (designed to strengthen the walls against earthquake damage) were removed on orders of the parish priest.  On October 21, 1868 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on the Hayward fault which runs through the grounds of the Mission shattered the walls of the Mission church and broke open the roof. Other Mission buildings, including the Tienda, and the Priest's Quarters were also damaged by the earthquake.

The site was almost entirely cleared and a wood-framed, Gothic-style church was erected directly over the original red-tiled Mission floor. In 1890, a Victorian-style rectory was built over the site another wing of the original mission.

Plans to reconstruct the church of Mission San José were launched in 1973. The Victorian-style rectory and the Gothic-style wooden church were both relocated. After extensive archaeological excavations and planning, construction began in 1982 on a replica of the 1809 adobe church. Work was completed and the facility rededicated on June 11, 1985.

The walls vary in thickness from 4 to 5 feet (1.5 m). Old timbers and rawhide thongs demonstrate the practicality of the padres who, having no iron nails for building, substituted the leather laces.  The lumber used in the reconstruction has been given a hand-hewn appearance.  The mission bell tower contains four original bells.  Mission San Jose is considered to be a near-perfect replica of the original church, though it incorporates a concealed structural steel frame which provides earthquake resistance. Further reconstruction of the missing part of the padres' living quarters and a restoration of the surviving adobe wing are part of the overall plans for the Mission. The mission contains many original elements, including the baptismal font, several statues, the four bells, and parts of the altar railing. The old mission church remains in use as a chapel of Saint Joseph Catholic Church.

Learn more about the missions and other great places to visit along the coast in “Along the King’s Road: A Guide to Touring the California Missions.” Get your copy here!