Mission San Jose
San Francisco Solano
San Juan Bautista
Soledad
Santa Cruz
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 Jose
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Mission San Francisco Solano is in Sonoma, not far from Santa Rosa. Sonoma attracts lots of tourists and the downtown area is full of boutique shops, restaurants, motels and so on. The mission is not the main attraction as there were not many people there. Yet, the town is the capital of the county. Sonoma is the nothernmost mission of them all and one of the small ones. There is quite a big museum though inside but as for the garden nothing much left except for the dry sandy patch of land with a fountain in the middle.
The mission is named for St. Francis Solano, missionary to Peruvian Indians. It was founded in 1823. The original plan was to replace Missions Dolores and San Rafael but of cource the church authorities did not agree to that. There can always be more missions but there can't be fewer, especially if it requires to demolish missions that had already existed.
Mission San Juan Bautista is situated in the small town of the same name. In spite of the fact that this town can justly be called a village for that what it actually is the mission is quite an attraction for tourists as opposed in Soledad. The mission complex is quite big including a huge garden full of flowers, the big church, the small chapel and a backyard, not to mention a museum. Actually there were too many people to enjoy it thoroughly, it feels in some way like San Juan Capistrano (another San Juan, is it a coincidence?) which is also situated in a village but the mission is crowded with tourists. 
This mission was founded in 1791 by Fr. Fermín Lasuén. The position is righ next to the little town of Soledad which is not much more than several gas stations and a couple of fast food cafes. It follows from this that the town is surrounded by agricultural activity and indeed one can see Mexican workers picking berries and vegetables in the fields. The mission itself is quite desolate, in fact one of the most desolate, almost like San Antonio de Padua but not quite like that. The mission is well preseved and surrounded by garden. It is supported mainly by volunteers. In a way it is right in the middle of a rural life: one can see a chicken sauntering right on the porch and a volunteer on duty feeds this bird. If one gets lucky one can also be offered a piece of coconut cake which is very tasty. A note on the wall will invite you to pick up an orange right from the tree but no more than one. Right next to the mission you may notice a truck with field workers and they will call you "Gringo". In the garden behind the mission one can also see ruins of the old adobe biuldings which long ago used to be workshops for carpenters.
This mission was founded in 1797 by Fr. Fermín Lasuén. Named for the Sacred Cross the mission stands on a hill right close to a big Catholic church which took the business. Nowadays the mission is hardly more than a small chapel, a garden and a giftshop. But there is a stature of Junipero Serra in the garden.
Mission Santa Cruz is very small. A little attractive garden is attached to it. Beside the stature of Serra one immediately notice an unusual stature of Virgin Mary there. One can also see an old baptismal font. The garden in fact is very picteresque: the stature of Mary is decorated by flowers, near the stature of Serra there is a big clay pot. A fountain with water lilies is right in the middle of the garden.
The mission does not attract many tourists. It's not big enough and little is left from the original mission.
