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Missions of California

The 21 Alta California missions were established along the northernmost section of California's El Camino Real (Spanish for "The Royal Highway," though often referred to as "The King's Highway"), christened in honor of King Charles III, much of which is now U.S. Route 101 and several Mission Streets. No group of structures in the United States elicits the intense interest inspired by the missions of California. The missions are collectively the best-known historic element of the coastal regions of California. More info about Missions

Mission San Diego de Alcalá

California San Diego is also generally regarded as the site of the region's first public execution in 1778. Father Luís Jayme, "California's First Christian Martyr," lies entombed beneath the chancel floor. The current church is the fourth to stand on this location. The Mission is a National Historic Landmark.

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Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, also known as the Carmel Mission, is a historic Roman Catholic mission church in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It was the headquarters of the padre presidente, Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. It was destroyed in the mid 1800s, only to be restored beginning in 1884. It remains a parish church today. It is regarded as the most beautiful of all missions, and is the only one to have its original bell tower dome.

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Mission San Antonio de Padua

Mission San Antonio de Padua was founded on July 14, 1771, the third mission founded in Alta California by Father Presidente Junípero Serra, and site of the first Christian marriage and first use of fired-tile roofing in Upper California.

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Mission San Gabriel Arcángel

The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a fully functioning Roman Catholic mission and a historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. Site of the first hospital in Alta California, the settlement was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary" September 8, 1771 as the fourth of what would become 21 Spanish missions in California.

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Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa

Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was founded 1772 on the Central Coast of California on a site located halfway between Santa Barbara and Monterey. It was named after Saint Louis of Anjou, the bishop of Toulouse. 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.

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Mission San Francisco de Asís

Mission San Francisco de Asís is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions. The Mission was founded on June 29, 1776 by Lieutenant José Joaquin Moraga and Father Francisco Palóu (a companion of Father Junipero Serra), both members of the de Anza Expedition, which had been charged with bringing Spanish settlers to Alta (upper) California, and evangelizing the local Indians, the Ohlone.

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Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded on All Saints Day November 1, 1776 by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order. Named for Giovanni da Capistrano, a 15th century theologian and "warrior priest" who resided in the Abruzzo region of Italy, San Juan Capistrano has the distinction of being home to the oldest building in California still in use, a chapel built in 1782; known alternately as "Serra's Chapel" and "Father Serra's Church," it is the only extant structure where it has been documented that the padre Junipero Serra celebrated mass.

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Mission Santa Clara de Asís

Mission Santa Clara de Asís was founded on January 12, 1777 and named for Clare of Assisi, the founder of the order of the Poor Clares. Although ruined and rebuilt six times, the settlement was never abandoned. The first mission to be built to honor a woman, the outpost was originally established as La Misión Santa Clara de Thamien (or Mission Santa Clara de Thamien) at the Indian village of So-co-is-u-ka

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Mission San Buenaventura

Mission San Buenaventura was founded on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1782 in Las Californias, part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain. Named for a Franciscan theologian, Saint Bonaventure, it was the last of the missions founded by Father Serra. Mission San Buenaventura was planned to be founded in the year 1770, but the founding was delayed because of the low availability of the military escorts needed to establish Mission San Buenaventura. In 1793, the first church burned down.

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Mission Santa Barbara

Mission Santa Barbara, also known as Santa Barbara Mission, is a Spanish Franciscan mission near present day Santa Barbara, California. It was founded December 4, 1786, the feast day of Saint Barbara, to evangelize the local Chumash (Canaliño) tribe. The Mission grounds occupy a rise between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez Mountains, and were consecrated by Father Fermín Lasuén, who had taken over the presidency of the California mission chain upon the death of Father Presidente Junípero Serra.

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Mission La Purísima Concepción

Mission La Purísima Concepción, the second mission site to bear the name, was founded on the "Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin" (December 8), 1787. The present site is located east of the City of Lompoc, California between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. The City of Lompoc was so small that the Roman Catholic Church made an exception to the rule that no mission is to be established within seven miles from any city (the original site of La Purísima was only one mile from the tiny town). It was moved four miles east of the town in 1812 after the Santa Barbara Earthquake severely damaged the Mission buildings on December 21st of that year.

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Mission Santa Cruz

Mission Santa Cruz was consecrated on August 29, 1791 and named for the "Celebration of the Sacred Cross," the name that the explorer Gaspar de Portolà had given to the area when he camped on the banks of the San Lorenzo River on October 17, 1769 and erected a wooden cross. As with the other California missions, Mission Santa Cruz served as a site for ecclesiastical conversion of natives, first the Ohlone, the original inhabitants of the region, and later the Yokuts from the east.

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Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad

Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad was founded on October 9, 1791 to minister and take in the Indians of the Salinas Valley. It was the thirteenth of the Spanish missions founded in California by members of the Franciscan Order. The Ohlone, the original residents of the valley, were converted and brought to live here, followed by Esselen and Yokuts.

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Mission San José

Mission San José was founded on June 11, 1797 on a site located in the "Mission San Jose District" of Fremont, California (formerly an independent town, a spot that the natives called Oroysom or Orisom) in the "Valley of San José." The settlement was the site of the first Ceasarian section childbirth in Alta California.The Mission entered a long period of gradual decline after secularization in 1834, though numerous restoration efforts in the intervening periods have reconstructed many of the original structures.

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Mission San Juan Bautista

Mission San Juan Bautista was founded on June 24, 1797 in what is now the San Juan Bautista Historic District of San Juan Bautista, California. Barracks for the soldiers, a nunnery, the Jose Castro House, and other buildings were constructed around a large grassy plaza in front of the church and can be seen today in their original form. The Ohlone, the original residents of the valley, were converted and brought to live at the Mission, followed by Yokuts from the Central Valley. Mission San Juan Bautista has served mass daily since 1797.

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Mission San Miguel Arcángel

Mission San Miguel Arcángel was founded on July 25, 1797 by the Franciscan order, on a site chosen specifically due to the large number of Salinan Indians that inhabited the area, whom the Spanish priests wanted to evangelize. It is located at 775 Mission Street, San Miguel, California, in San Luis Obispo County.

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Mission San Fernando Rey de España

Mission San Fernando Rey de España was founded on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary" (September 8), 1797. The settlement is located on the former Encino Rancho in the Mission Hills community of northern Los Angeles, near the site of the first gold discovery in Alta California.

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Mission San Luis Rey de Francia

Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, also known as San Luis Rey Mission Church, was founded on June 13, 1798 in what is now the town of Oceanside, California. In 1816, Mission San Antonio de Pala was established twenty miles (32 km) inland as its asistencia ("sub-mission"). The local Quechnajuichom tribe became known as the Luiseño, after the Mission. This church, built in 1811 is the third church on this location. It is a National Historic Landmark, for its pristine example of a Spanish Mission Church complex.

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Mission Santa Inés

Mission Santa Inés (sometimes spelled Santa Ynes) was founded on September 17, 1804 by Father Estévan Tapís, who had succeeded Father Fermín Lasuén as President of the California mission chain. 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 . Despite its name, the Mission is located at 1760 Mission Drive, Solvang, California. The Mission was home to the first learning institution in Alta California.

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Mission San Rafael Arcángel

Mission San Rafael Arcángel was founded on December 14, 1817 as a medical asistencia ("sub-mission") of the Mission San Francisco de Asís as a hospital to treat sick Indians, making it Alta California's first sanitarium. The weather was much better in the North Bay, and helped the ill to get better. It was never intended to be a stand-alone mission, but nevertheless grew and was granted full mission status on October 19, 1822. Likewise, Mission San Francisco Solano was intended to be an adjunct of Mission San Rafael but developed into a full-blown mission in its own right.

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Mission San Francisco Solano

Mission San Francisco Solano was founded on July 4, 1823 and named for a missionary to the Indians of Peru born in Montilla, Spain, known as the "Wonder Worker of the New World." Originally planned as an asistencia ("sub-mission") to Mission San Rafael Arcángel, it is the northernmost Alta California mission (an attempt to found a twenty-second mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 was aborted). The mission is located in present-day Sonoma, California.it is located at 114 East Spain Street, Sonoma, California 95476

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