Adventure 101, Mission 01 San Juan Bautista

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 101, Mission 01 San Juan Bautista, 15th mission

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  August 4, 2012

Location: San Juan Bautista

Description:

Thing One and Thing Two decided to go on a little more out of the way journey to go to the South Bay Area. So we went through San Juan Bautista and saw its mission. We arrived at 5:00pm, in time to see those who are part of the ensemble who portray the times of western San Juan Bautista leaving their jobs. But we were in time to be reminded of that the mission is part of a working parish. A wedding had just taken place and the bride was leaving.

We wandered around the premises for the next hour, seeing the plaza, the fields being worked behind the mission cemetery, and the surroundings. The cemetery has 4300 mission indians, Spanish settlers, and pioneers buried in it. The first buried was on April 23, 1798, a child by the name of Maria Trinidad.

This mission which was started on June 24, 1797 was the 15^th mission created. It was the largest one, where the church had three aisles. The founder was Father Lasuen. In 1812, a monastery was added with 36 rooms. Unlike some other missions, this church was never abandoned and continues to serve the community of San Juan Bautista.



This park includes several structures built in the 1800s. The four main historic museums are the Plaza Hotel, the Zanetta House/Plaza Hall, the Plaza Stables, and the newly reopened Castro-Breen Adobe.The park also features a blacksmith shop, the historic jail, and an early American settler’s cabin. The feel of this state park is similar to how I thought of Columa within the James Marshall Gold Discovery State Park. You had a working town within the state park—the place was not dead, but interconnected with the present.






From California State Parks site:

Founded by Father Lasuen in 1797 this mission was unwittingly located directly above the San Andreas fault. Much of the original structure remains and has been restored to once again be the largest California mission church and the only one with three aisles. It was named for John the Baptist. Musical arts were taught here and the mission owned many instruments, which the Indians readily took to. Father Tapis developed a colored musical notation system and taught the Indians to read music as well as play it. Some of the parchments with colored notations still survive and the reredos behind the altar is so well-preserved that the paint is still brilliant.
 Second and Mariposa Sts. in San Juan Bautista, 95045, (831) 623-4528