The Oldest Building in California

Mission San Juan Capistrano is a Spanish mission in San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California. Founded on November 1, 1776, by Spanish Catholic missionaries of the Franciscan Order, it was named for Saint John of Capistrano, a 14th-century theologian and warrior priest. The mission was founded less than 60 yards from the village of Acjacheme. While the site was originally consecrated on October 30, 1775, it was quickly abandoned due to unrest among the indigenous population in San Diego.

The territory was inhabited by the Acjachemen people, whose language was related to the Luiseño language. The highest concentration of their villages was along the lower San Juan, where the mission is preserved today. By 1790, the number of Indian reductions had grown to 700 Mission Indians, and by 1796, nearly 1,000 neophytes lived in or around the Mission compound. The mission also produced the first wine in Alta California in 1783 from Criolla grapes first planted there in 1779.

More than 69 former inhabitants, mostly Juaneño Indians, have marked graves in the Mission's cemetery. Restoration efforts began around 1910 under the leadership of Monsignor St. John O'Sullivan. The chapel called Father Serra Church, built in 1782, stands as the oldest building in California still in use today. It is the only extant structure where it has been documented that Junipero Serra celebrated Mass.

Today, the mission functions as a museum and receives over 500,000 visitors each year. While the ruins of The Great Stone Church remain as an architectural wonder after an 1812 earthquake, the Serra Chapel within the compound still serves as a chapel for the mission parish. A modern church complex, known as Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano, was constructed north and west of the mission compound in 1984.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons