San Juan Capistrano Mission

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After leaving San Marcos this morning, we drove 30 minutes west to the beautiful City of San Juan Capistrano, home to the “Jewel of the Missions” located in the center of Southern California along the Gold Coast.

As we expected, pets are not allowed inside the walls of the Mission, so Paulette gladly volunteered to take Molly and went to look at some of the dozens of shops along the town’s main street.

The Mission's entrance fee was $9, which I thought was quite reasonable. I spent about 45 minutes exploring the Mission, the ruins, and reading about its founding and history. It's a pretty interesting story.

From San Juan Capistrano Mission

Franciscan Padre Father Junipero Serra founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776. It is the seventh of 21 Spanish Missions established in California by the Franciscan padres. From its founding, San Juan Capistrano Mission grew quickly and soon outgrew its small, original chapel. In 1797, a building that was to be the largest church in California was started. It was finished in 1806, and continued to grow.

From San Juan Capistrano Mission

In December, 1812 an earthquake destroyed the church at San Juan Capistrano Mission. The little chapel remaining is called Fr. Serra's Church, because it is the only building still standing anywhere in the mission chain in which it is known that the founding Father actually conducted Mass.

From San Juan Capistrano Mission

Spain controlled California until 1821 when Mexico won its independence. In 1834, after Mexico won its independence from Spain, they decided to end the mission system and sell the land. From 1842 to 1845, there was not even a priest left. In 1845, San Juan Capistrano Mission was sold to Don Juan Forster, Governor Pio Pico's brother-in-law. The Forster family lived there for 20 years. Mexico lost California to the United States as a result of the US Mexican War of 1846-48. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln returned the land to the Catholic church.

San Juan Capistrano Mission was not kept up and in 1866, when Father Jose Mut was sent there, he found it in ruins. The only building still standing was the chapel, which still had its roof because it had been used to store hay. Father Mut tried to keep the buildings from deteriorating further, but he could do very little.

From San Juan Capistrano Mission

In 1910 Father John O'Sullivan came to San Juan Capistrano Mission. When he saw the condition of San Juan Capistrano Mission, he asked to be put in charge of the ruins. Slowly, Father O'Sullivan started to restore it all by himself. He traded bits of the ruined buildings for new materials, cut roof beams and hired Mexican workers to rebuild the adobe walls. Finally, in 1918, he got permission to make it an active church again, which it still is. The building and grounds are partly restored and there is a museum.

From San Juan Capistrano Mission

San Juan Capistrano Mission is also famous for its swallows, who fly south every year on October 23 and return on March 19. Legend says the swallows took up residence here to escape an innkeeper who kept destroying their nests. The swallows arrive at San Juan Capistrano Mission in groups and make their nests from mud and saliva, building them under the eaves of the buildings.

Unfortunately, Paulette and I didn’t know that March 19th was the magic day for the swallows to return – we missed it by just five days. Maybe next year we’ll make a special effort to be there – that would be very interesting for sure!

We left San Juan Capistrano about 3:00pm and arrived back at the Sands RV Park at 4:30pm - luckily, we didn't have to go through Los Angeles so we missed all of the heavy traffic along the freeways.

So, all in all, today was a pretty good day for us. Paulette has her regular Quilting Club to go to tomorrow and I'm just looking forward to hanging around the RV Park with Molly as it's supposed to be another hot, sunny day!