Old Mission: Santa Barbara, CA
On our last full day in Santa Barbara, we grabbed a coffee and walked up to the Old Mission. I was pretty excited to check it out since it was the only one we'd be seeing on our trip and I knew how important these missions were to the history of California.
Located about a ten minute drive from State St (where lots of the restaurants and bars are), the old mission is a popular tourist attraction that manages to balance this popularity while still maintaining an aura of religious devotion and tranquility. When we arrived, we were greeted with two photo stands so of course I had to take advantage of them... Matt is always such a good sport in situations like this. Thanks Matt!
After attempting to pay the small entrance fee ($9), we were ushered in for free since their card machine was refusing to work. This was such a small thing but it really made us feel welcome and felt very appropriate for the setting. Coming through the entrance room, you come out into this beautiful courtyard. It felt like a private little world hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Established in 1786, the mission has operated as an active religious site for over two hundred years. Not only does it have a lovely church where parishioners can come for services but the mission is also still home to a community of Franciscan friars. We saw a few of the friars going about their business as we toured the space and felt very jealous of their lovely surroundings!
Known as the "Queen of the Missions", this was the tenth mission established to provide sites of religious conversion for the local Chumash-Barbareño tribe. In total, there were 21 missions built in California between 1769 and 1833 but Santa Barbara stands out as one of the most beautiful, which is where it's nickname comes from.
After crossing through another part of the building, we entered the garden at the rear of the mission. This serves as not only a space for quiet reflection but also houses some of the graves of early occupants such as Don Jose Francisco de Ortega who founded a nearby mission at Buena Ventura and served as the commandant of the Presidio at Santa Barbara. The Presidio was the military installation here while the mission was the religious institution.
One of the most interesting was this plaque for Juana Maria, a local Native American woman who lived alone on San Nicolas island for eighteen years. Also known as the "Lone Woman," Juana Maria (the name given to her by Spanish residents of Santa Barbara) was the last surviving member of the Nicoleño tribe that lived on San Nicolas Island off the coast of California. The plaque made it sound like she had been left there while in transit to somewhere else but the reality is that this was her home. In 1835, a ship was dispatched to bring the islanders to the mainland but Juana Maria was not with them when they left.
There are differing stories as to why she was not with the others on that ship - ranging from the crew panicking when the weather turned so they left without her by accident to a more romantic version where she dove overboard when she realized her brother had been left behind. Several attempts were made to locate her before finally she was brought to the mainland in 1853.
These little plaques demonstrate the rich history around this mission and the impact it has had on the local populations. The garden was a peaceful place to consider the positive and negative connotations of this impact and the effect it had on the history of California. I appreciated that the mission signs didn't shy away from this discussion and in some cases even encouraged it by highlighting the tensions between military personnel and the friars, who both operated under very different sets of orders.
We really enjoyed our visit to this lovely mission and would definitely recommend it to anyone traveling in the area as it provides useful insights into the history of not only Santa Barbara but also of California as a whole.
Full Details:
Address: 2201 Laguna Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Hours: Open daily from 9am to 4:15pm
Entrance Fee: Adults ($9), Seniors 65+ ($7), Active Military ($7), Youth 5-17 ($4), Under 4 (Free)
Website: http://www.santabarbaramission.org/
