Mission San Juan Capistrano
Mission San Juan Capistrano, the Jewel of the Missions, was founded by Junipero Serra in November, 1776, as the 7th of 21 Spanish missions established in California. Its Great Stone Church was all but leveled by an 1812 earthquake. The Mission was secularized in 1833 and sold at auction in 1845. In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln returned the Mission to the Catholic Church. The adjacent Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano, modeled on the Great Stone Church, was completed in 1986. It is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and a California Historical Landmark.
San Juan Capistrano, Orange County
Images by Andrew Schmidt