San Carlos Borromeo
San Antonio de Padua
San Francisco de Asís (Dolores)
San Miguel Archángel
La Purísima Conceptión
San Rafael Archángel
This site is devoted to some of the oldest historical monuments in the state of California: Spanish missions. They were founded by Spanish missionaries mostly along the coast of California. On this site you can find brief information and pictures showing some of them. The original buildings were all destroyed by earthquakes and fire and later were reconstructed. We invite you to visit these monuments reflecting early California history.
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Mission San Diego de Alcalá San Carlos Borromeo San Antonio de Padua San Francisco de Asís (Dolores) San Miguel Archángel La Purísima Conceptión San Rafael Archángel
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The mission is situated in San Rafael, a small town north of San Francisco. The town is very hilly with narrow streets and feeling of loneliness in the air. Nowadays this is one of the smallest mission complexes. The mission was found in 1817 by Fr. Vicente de Sarría as a hospital and shelter for the sick (San Rafael is a patron of good health) and for that purpose a warm and sunny coastline was chosen. Since a death rate in San Francisco was very high, a need arose to transfer a part of the Mission Dolores population into healthier climate. Thus Mission San Rafael appeared.
Now all you can see is a beautiful church building. The hospital was rearranged into a gift shop. There is a stature of Serra in front of it.
This one by contrast is one of the largest mission comlexes. It includes barracks for soldiers, carcel, hospital, a couple of chapels, priest quaters, workshops and so on. Besides there is quite a large garden with Indian shacks in it. The garden is full of olive trees and machines to produce olive oil. This mission was founded in 1787 by Fr. Fermín Lasuén. What we see now is not the original mission and is not the original site so that can explain a good state of the building. The mission is situated in quite a solitary place not very far from Lompoc. It is well taken care of.
The surroundings are very quiet and picturesque. This mission has a very high museum value due to the excellent organization.
The most desolate of all the missions is situated in San Miguel. Possibly, the reason of such desolation is that San Miguel is far from the beaten track: indeed, it's in the middle of the country near highway 101. There are no big towns nearby. We found it by luck. But the advantages of this: the church is big, dark and gloomy, the garden reminds of a desert, the cemetery is like it should be: solitary and moody. This mission is not like all the others. Not many tourists. It is probably one of the few missions that preserved an authenticated aura around the place.
It was founded in 1797 by Fr. Fermín Lasuén. It looks very old and the cloudy sky corresponded perfectly with the place. We managed to make interesting pictures of this particular misson.
Mission San Antonio was founded in 1771 by Fr. Junípero Serra himself. It was the third mission in the chain following San Diego and San Carlos in Monterey.
This mission unlike all the others is situated on the territory of a military reservation, far from any town (the nearest town is King City, 23 miles). There are some other buildings around but there is plenty of space too. The base ground is used for military training, so there are mostly fields and hills there. It's not unusual even to see a tank. To go to the mission you have to pass the military control. The mission has a historical museum inside, it was rebuilt several times. 
The second in the chain of mission was founded in 1770 by Junípero Serra. The original spot was at Presidio of Monterey, the following year the mission was moved to Carmel. It is named for St. Carlo Borromeo, a Cardinal of the XVI century. The building was restored several times.
The mission is an interesting and unusual building that can't be confused with the others. It is situated next to a Catholic school. It has a garden on one side and a big square on the other. The mission is a site of Serra's sarcophagus though they say that the body is not there.
