Missions Open Window on City's Earliest Days

When many people picture the earliest European settlements in what is now the United States, they think of Massachusetts or Virginia or other East-Coast sites rich in colonial history. Like much of the West Coast, California was not even thought to be a gleam in the eye of European explorers. It may come as a surprise, then, that Spanish settlements can trace their California history back more than 400 years.

In 1542 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into a wide harbor and planted the flag of Spain in what he christened San Miguel. The settlement would later be renamed San Diego. That naming came in 1602—five years before Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in North America—when Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino arrived near what is now Point Loma and named the area in honor of the Spanish Catholic saint, San Diego de Alcala.

By the mid 1700s Spain began to assert control over the coast of California, and in July 1769 the first of California's string of missions, built as way stations for travelers and to bring local Indians to the church, was established in San Diego by Father Junipero Serra. It was named Mission San Diego de Alcala.

While the original mission was burned in 1775 by the Indians, who also killed the priest, Father Luis Jayme, it was rebuilt according to specifications for Spanish forts and opened at its present location in 1813. It was restored in 1931 and today is an active parish church. Jayme, considered California's first Christian martyr, is buried under the altar. At its peak in the early 1800s, Mission San Diego encompassed 50,000 acres.

Pala Mission was founded in 1816 as an asistencia to the larger Mission San Luis Rey in the northeastern part of what's now San Diego County. Pala Mission is the only one of the area's missions still fulfilling its original purpose of serving as a mission to local Indians, in this case the Pala Indians. It also has a museum and gift shop.

The original Pala Mission has been meticulously reconstructed and is an excellent venue for getting an idea of what typical mission architecture involved. Its walls display paintings by local Indians, and its bell tower is notable for being the only freestanding one among the California missions. There is also an old cemetery next to the mission.

A third surviving mission in the San Diego area is Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, named for France's King Louis IX. When it was built in 1798, about six miles from Pala Mission, it was the 18th of the 21 California missions. In the early years of its existence, the mission was self-sustaining, making its own bricks, using its own irrigation system to water fruit trees and grape vines, and containing about 50,000 head of cattle. Today the mission includes a retreat center, museum, gardens, and the largest collection of old Spanish vestments in the United States. Self-guided and escorted tours are available.