Painting of the mission as it appeared in 1848 with the covered portico extending across the church entrance. (image courtesy of Wikipedia)
On July 16, 1769 Fr. Junipero Serra raised the cross, said Mass at the site chosen for the chapel and formally founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá on a hill overlooking the bay. It was the first of twenty one missions that would eventually be established in the Spanish empire of Alta California. The original settlement consisted of very primitive brush covered huts. Resistance from the local Tipai people began almost immediately, leaving a number of dead on both sides just weeks after the mission was established.
In 1774, the mission was relocated to its present location about six miles northeast of the original site. By 1808 the population reached fifteen hundred and the construction of a new, larger church – the third one on the present site – was begun. In 1811 cracks in the church roof developed and the two buttresses at the front entrance were added to provide additional structural support. The church was completed around 1813.
Mission ruins circa 1900 (image courtesy of Creative Commons)
From 1777 through the early years of the 1820’s, the mission grew but was never considered among the most prosperous of the California missions. It was quickly abandoned during the secularization of the missions by Mexico, and by 1836 the church and other mission buildings had begun to deteriorate, the adobe walls melting back into the earth. The arrival of Americans following California statehood only accelerated the neglect of the mission – distained as a foreign relic of a bygone culture. From 1849 to 1857, the American military used the old church as a barracks and stable. When they left, time and the elements began their grim work on what remained of the church and mission buildings. By the late 19th century, all that remained of the church was its façade, the two buttresses, the base of the bell tower, the baptistery arch, and one room of the convento (the priest's residence).
The mission facade circa 1900 prior to restoration efforts (image courtesy of Wikipedia)
South façade circa 1936
The turn of the century brought a revival of interest in the history of the missions and early Spanish culture of Alta California. Serious restoration of Mission San Diego started in the 1920’s. Here's a link to photos of the bell tower reconstruction circa 1930. Reconstruction of the church in 1931 followed contemporary standards of historical accuracy and, whenever possible, used materials identical or similar to the original structure of 1813. Although it’s mostly a reconstruction, today’s church, both exterior and interior, represents as close as possible the dimensions and appearance of the original 1813 building.
The main altar. No records exist of the original design. The current church is built on the footprint of the 1813 church. The darker floor tiles are original.
Mission churches tend to be long, high, and narrow. The building's width was limited to the length of logs available to construct ceiling beams.
The mission's Sanctuary Light, signifying the presence of Christ in the Tabernacle. After so many years of neglect and abandonment of the mission, it's wonderful and profound to see it burning once again.
The baptistry is one of only a few remnants of the Mission Basilica still standing from the original church of 1813. The font is a replica of the stone basin from the Church of St. Peter in Petra, Mallorca, Spain. The Petra font was where Father Junipero Serra was baptized.
Most early mission buildings had high windows for both protection and structural strength, minimizing the weight of adobe above each window that the frame had to support.
Entrance to the mission garden.
The Campanario
The missions are a spiritual and physical memorial to the peoples of California. Their history is both brutal and glorious and reflects the complexity that accompanies periods of seismic cultural change. For Fr. Junípero Serra and his Franciscans, the Age of Missions was an opportunity to bring souls to God. And although their evangelization effort was frequently uninformed and naive, I think it was mostly genuine and even divinely inspired. For the government and soldiers of New Spain, it was necessary to protect remote Alta California from incursions of Russian and English traders and settlers. The soldiers could be less charitable than the clergy they accompanied and frequently treated the natives with contempt and brutality. The indigenous peoples suffered profoundly, their culture and ways of life quickly destroyed as the New World, inevitably, overran the old.
View of the mission gardens with statue of St. Francis.
These images reflect the personal impact these old sites have for me. My goal is to eventually visit all twenty one missions along El Camino Real. Some of the photos are purely documentary, others will hopefully inspire a reflection on the remarkable history behind the sites. The missions are an enduring testimonial to the faith, persistence and suffering of the people that built them. The Golden Age of California Missions lasted from 1769 to 1834.