CALIFORNIA MISSIONS RESEARCH PROJECT

Mission Fact Sheet

San Francisco de Asís The Sixth of the California Missions

Founded: October 9, 1776

Named For: Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order

Also Called: Mission Dolores

Founding Father President: Fr. Junípero Serra

Indians Joining This Mission: The Native Americans in the area were Ohlone. Indians from other groups were recruited or taken into the mission, including members of the Bay Miwok, Coast Miwok and Patwin tribes. The mission was founded at the village of Chutchui.

Mission Site: Near San Francisco Bay which the Spanish had just begun to explore. (Juan Manuel de Ayala sailed into the Bay in the San Carlos on August 5, 1775). The mission is now located about a half mile from the original site, at present day 16th and Dolores Streets.

Layout: Traditional quadrangle, completed in 1798.

Mission Church: The small chapel (114' long by 22' wide) was dedicated on August 2, 1791. It has survived earthquakes, fires and other calamities. It was restored in 1917 and received a complete restoration and retrofit in 1990 and 1994. The ceiling has a distinctive chevron design painted with natural pigments. The mission church is the oldest intact building in San Francisco.

Mission Bells: The three original bells hang on rawhide thongs above the entranceway, in a narrow niche. They are dedicated to San Francisco, San Jose and San Martín. The bells are still in use.

Mission Art: The richly gilded baroque altar and reredos in the sanctuary of the church are stunning. The art is among the most sophisticated in the mission chain.

Special Attraction: The cemetery (much reduced from its original size) is a well landscaped oasis in the middle of a busy city. The mass grave of the Mission Indians buried here is called the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine.

Significant Event(s): The hospital asistencia of San Rafael, subsequently made a full mission, was established 15 miles north of Mission Dolores in 1817. Hundreds of neophytes transferred there to regain their health. Mission Dolores survived the great fire and earthquake of 1906.

Mission Fact Sheet

San Diego de Alcalá San Diego de Alcalá

Founded: July 16, 1769

Special Designation: Mother of the Alta California Missions.

Named For: St. Didacus of Alcalá, a fifteenth century Spanish Franciscan. The Bay of San Diego was discovered in 1542 by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo but named San Diego in 1602 by the explorer Sebatián Vizcaíno, who mapped the coast.

Also Called: Mission San Diego

Founding Missionaries: The Blessed Junípero Serra, the first Father President of the California missions.

Indians Joining This Mission: The prominent he Indian tribes in the area were the Tipai-Ipai. The native term most frequently used for the San Diego natives is Kumeyaay, one of the principal dialects. The Spanish called the neophytes at Mission San Diego Diegueño. Unlike other missios, the neophytes at San Diego continued to reside in traditional villages in part due to food shortages at the mission.

Mission Site: The mission was originally located on Presidio Hill overlooking the bay, at a location called Cosoy by the natives. The mission was relocated about five and a half miles inland at the village of Nipaguay in 1774.

Layout: Traditional quadrangle

Mission Church: The church was originally built in 1813 (the third church on this site). It was rebuilt and fully restored in 1931.

Mission Bells: A striking 46' campanario (bell wall) on the left side of the church rises above the mission gardens and contains five bells. The largest bell, called Mater Dolorsa weights 1,200 pounds. It was cast in San Diego in 1894.

Mission Art: The baptismal font in the museum is original to Mission San Diego. The baptismal font in the church is a replica of the one in which Fr. Junipero Serra was baptized in 1713 in Petra on the island of Majorca.

Special Attraction: A popular stop on the mission tour is a re-creation of Fr. Serra's cloister or living quarters.

Significant Event(s): The mission was destroyed in an Indian attack in November, 1775. One of the missionaries, Fr. Luis Jaime, and two others were killed, including Urselino the mission carpenter and the blacksmith Jose Romero.

Mission Fact Sheet

San Juan BautistaThe 15th of the California Missions

Founded: June 24, 1797

Special Designation: Mission of Music

Named For: St. John the Baptist

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 San Juan Bautista)

Founding Father President: Fr. Fermín Francisco de Lasuėn

Indians Joining This Mission: The mission was founded near the village of Popeloutchom in the land of the Mutsun tribelet of the Coastanoan people. Its location at the crossroads of El Camino Real (Royal Road) and El Camino Viejo (Old Road) at Pacheeo Pass drew Yokuts to the mission in significant numbers in the 1820s. The Amah Mutsun decendants of the San Juaneros, or mission neophytes, have engaged in a decades-long struggle for Federal recognition of their tribal status.

Mission Site: Located on the main plaza in the town that developed around the mission, some 90 miles southeast of San Francisco.

Mission Church: The present church was dedicated on June 23, 1812, and replaced the much smaller adobe chapel of 1797-98 built by Ygnacio Barrera, Second Carpenter of the frigate Concepción. In 1818 Anglo-American carpenter Felipe Santiago (Thomas Doak), the earlies American settler in California, painted (and very likely constructed) the main altar reredos after a design by Fr. Estevan Tapis.

Mission Bells: The church did not include a bell tower. Two bells were hung from a wooden bell rack. A two-tiered companario with three bell openings was added during a 1976 restoration. One of the bells is original.

Mission Art: The 1818 main altar reredos (altar screen) and bultos (saints) remain largely un-restored. The church ambo or pulpit, which has a sounding board mounted overhead, was installed shortly afer 1812-13. In 1820 the church acquired the larges and most complete collection of apostolate paintings in the mission chain.

Special Attraction: 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 and the fomer cuartel (Soldier's barracks) retrofitted by Angelo Zanetta in 1858 as the Plaza Hotel.

Mission Fact Sheet

San Luis Rey de Francía The 18th of the California Missions

Founded: June 13, 1798

Special Designation: King of the Missions

Named For: King Luis IX of France, who led crusades to the Holy Land in the 13th century.

Also Called: Mission San Luis Rey

Founding Father President: Fr. Frmin Franciso Lasuen.

Indians Joining This Mission: The Takic speaking people associated with Mission San Luis Rey have been called Luiseño since the Spanish occupation. The native term for these people is the Payomkowishum. The descendants of the neophytes at the mission's asistencia, San Antonio de Pala, now call themselves the Pala Band of Mission Indians.

Mission Site: Located on a hill overlooking a peaceful valley at the native village of Tacayme in the region know as Quechia, about five miles east of present day Oceanside.

Layout: San Luis Rey extended over six acres. By 1826 the quadrangle measured 500 feet on each side. There was a long corridor with thirty-two Roman arches in front of the patio.

Mission Church: The San Luis Rey Church, completed in 1815, is the only surviving mission church laid out in a cruciform plan. It is 165.5 feet in length and the nave spans 27.5 feet in width by 30 feet in height. A cupola - unique among the California missions - is an octagonal lantern formed of 144 panes of glass. It tops the wooden dome built over the sanctuary in 1829.

Mission Bells: Four bells hang in a three-story domed bell tower. The mission was designed with only one bell tower.

Mission Art: Look for the original hand hammered baptismal font in the baptistery, along with religious iconography and mission era art and artifacts exhibited in a beautiful interpritive museum.

Special Attraction: The sunken garden and lavanderia (laundry), located in a hollow to the south of the mission may be reached by descending 46 fire tiled steps. Two springs provided water that sprouted from the mouths of sculpted gargoyles into the lavanderia.

Interesting Facts: In 1816, the asistencia or sub-mission of San Antonio de Pala was established at a mission rancho around 25 miles to the east of the main complex. This is the only one of a score of mission-era asistencia that is intact and continues to serve its descendant Indian community. The asistencia is located on the Pala Indian Reservation.

Mission Fact Sheet

San Juan Capistrano The Seventh of the California Missions

Founded: November 1, 1776

Special Designation: The Jewel of the Missions

Named For: St. John of Capistrano, a 14th century theologian

Founding Father President: Fr. Junípero Serra

Indians Joining This Mission: The Takic speaking people of the Acjachemen villages. Neophytes associated with San Juan Capistrano have been called Juaneño since the Spanish occupation.

Mission Site: Located within sight of the ocean in the town of San Juan Capistrano, which developed around the mission.

Layout: Traditional quadrangle

Mission Church: In 1778, two years after the mission was moved to the present site, a small adobe chapel was built, and soon replaced by the Serra Chapel in 1782. This is the only remaining church in which Fr. Serra held mass. In order to accommodate the mission's growing population, the Great Stone Church was constructed between 1797 - 1806. This cathedral-like building was 180 feet long by 40 feet wide, and had a high-vaulted ceiling surmounted by seven domes fronted by a 120 foot tall bell tower. In December, 1812 a massive earthquake destroyed the Great Stone Church, killing 40 neophytes.

Mission Bells: The four bells that hung in the Great Stone Church survived the earthquake, and were hung in a bell wall, one of the mission's most picturesque features. The two largest bells were cast in 1796, the others in 1804. Recently the two largest bells were recast, and the originals rehung in the ruins of the Great Stone Church.

Mission Art: The reredos and altar of Serra's Chapel are made of cherry wood and covered with gold leaf. They originated in Barcelona, Spain and are about three hundred years old. The altar is adorned with fifty-two angels faces, one for every Sunday of the year.

Special Attraction: San Juan Capistrano, with its beautifully landscaped grounds and with the ruins of the Great Stone Church and adjacent bell wall, is one of the most picturesque sites in California.

Interesting Facts: Cliff Swallows (Las Golondrínas) return to mission from their wintering grounds 2000 miles away on or about each March 19 (St. Joseph's Day). The return of the swallows is celebrated in Leon Rene’s famous song "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano."

Mission Fact Sheet

Santa Bárbara The Tenth of the California Missions

Founded: December 4, 1786

Special Designation: Queen of the Missions

Named For: Saint Barbara, a legendary martyred church figure of the 3rd century.

Founding Father President: Fr. Fermín Francisco de Lasuėn

Indians Joining This Mission: Santa Bárbara was the third mission established in the land of the Chumash people at the native site of Xana'yan. The neophytes were referred to as Barbareño (after the mission) and Canaleño.

Mission Site: In the city of Santa Barbara on a hill commanding a striking view of the sea.

Layout: Santa Barbara was laid out in the traditional quadrangle, with separate granaries, a weavery with patio, tannery, and neophyte housing forming additional courtyard-oriented squares. Many of the exisiting buildings at the rear of the mission complex, however, were created to meet the needs of the seminary, established in the 20th century. Most of the new construction follows the foundations of the old quadrangle.

Mission Church: The church was completed in 1820 with one tower. The second tower was added in 1831, collapsed within two years, and was rebuilt in 1833.

Mission Bells: Six bells hang within the two church towers.

Mission Art: The mission church is filled with original and noteworthy paintings and statues, including a unique abalone-encrusted Chumash altar dated to the 1790s. The two largest religious paintings in all of the missions are at Santa Barbara. One painting, 168" high by 103" wide, depicts the "Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin." It is thought to have originated in the Mexico City studio of Miguel Mateo Maldonado y Cabrera (1695-1768) and was acquired by the mission in 1798. "The Crucifixion" (168" by 126") is not attributed to a specific artist.

Special Attraction: The beautiful Moorish fountain located in front of the monastery wing, to the left of the church, was sculpted by mason and carpenter José Antonio Ramírez in 1808.

Interesting fact: Juana Mariá, the Lone Woman of San Nicholas Island portrayed in Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins was buried in the mission cemetery in 1853.

San Luis Obispo de Tolosa

San Rafael Arcangel

San Francisco Solano

Santa Clara de Asis

San Antonio de Padua

San Buenaventura