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Building Construction at the Missions
Since we are on the topic, this is a chapter from a book manuscript I recently completed.
The Building of the Missions
The building of the missions constituted the quintessential manifestation of the creation of new utopian communities on the fringes of Spanish
America. Although it took years and even decades to the complete the final stages of construction of the new communities, there were common elements
in the general design and layout of the missions. The master plan was the same as that used in the new cities built in the New World, laid out on a
grid plan and centered on a central square known as a plaza. Medieval European convents and monasteries also influenced the design of the missions.
Although this was the ultimate goal for the missionaries who were crafting new indigenous towns, there were also stages in the development of the
building complexes or cascos. In Paraguay, for example, the Jesuits moved missions to several sites because of attacks by hostile natives or rival
colonists, and in some instances the final stage of construction of permanent churches and other structures occurred a century or more following the
initial establishment of the mission. For example, Jesuit missionaries directed the construction of the great stone church at San Miguel between about
1735 and 1747. Many of the missions established on the fringes of northern Mexico, on the other hand, occupied only one site or at most two. The
missionaries completed the construction of the building complexes in a shorter period of time, but construction also passed through phases from
temporary structures to permanent ones.
In some instances the missionaries also incorporated measures of social control and social engineering into the design of the utopian mission
communities. Examples of this include the construction of what was called a coti guazu in the Paraguayan missions to segregate widows and the wives
of fugitive men from the rest of the general population. Missionaries stationed on the northern frontier of New Spain included dormitories for single
women and sometimes for single men in the plan for the new communities they developed to also insure the segregation of the sexes outside of the
confines of the institution of Christian marriage. In the last decades of the eighteenth-century the construction of these dormitories conformed to a
government mandate. Housing for indigenous families also constituted an important aspect of the program to transform indigenous society. The
missionaries expected native peoples to live in European-style housing in nuclear families. The Jesuits in Paraguay, for example, abolished Guarani
communal housing, but did arrange the blocks of new housing to permit the persistence of the clan structure.
This chapter outlines the development of and the common model for the construction of the missions. It begins with a discussion of the building of
the mission communities along the northern fringe of Mexico, and is followed by a discussion of the Jesuit reducciones of Paraguay. Themes include
stages of the building of the cascos, as well as the functionality of the missions as independent towns with buildings dedicated to a variety of uses
beyond the church that was the spiritual center of the new utopias.
Building the Missions on the Northern Fringe of Mexico
A clear pattern of development in stages of the mission building complexes is evident in the New Mexico missions. The building chronology has been
established for the three Salinas communities Abo, Quarai, and Humanas. The newly arrived missionary negotiated with community leaders for the
purchase or assignment of rooms to serve as a residence, chapel, and storerooms, as well as a site for more permanent structures. Following the
remodeling of the assigned rooms, the missionary directed the construction of a church and convento complex. In all three missions the first stage of
development dated to the 1620s and 1630s. The Franciscans eventually decided to replace the more modest first church with a more substantial church
and convento. At Abo, the Franciscans enlarged and remodeled existing structures, whereas at Quarai and Humanas new complexes replaced the first
buildings. Drought and increased warfare forced the abandonment of Humanas before the completion of the new church.
Although comparable to the churches built in the final stages of development of the reducciones, the cascos of the three Salinas missions took final
form only some forty to fifty years following the establishment of the missions. This was much sooner than in the case of the reducciones, a fact
explained by the greater stability of the New Mexico establishments. The three pueblos occupied a single site until abandoned in the 1670s, while a
number of the reducciones occupied several sites until finding permanent locations. The magnificent churches built at communities such as San Miguel
and San Ignacio Mini dated to a period of greater stability in the region.
The record of building at Pecos was somewhat different from that already discussed for the three Salinas missions Abo, Quarai, and Humanas. The
Franciscans first directed the construction of a small church located about one quarter mile north of the indigenous village. There is no indication
of what quarters the resident Franciscan used, but most likely village leaders assigned him rooms, as had been the case at the three Salinas missions.
A newly arrived Franciscan had a new and larger church built from about 1620 to 1624 or 1625. The Franciscans had the convento added following the
completion of the new church.
The New Mexico missions were unique in that the Franciscans appended a new religious center physically located on the edge of existing sedentary
indigenous communities. The Franciscans had to negotiate with community leaders for space to build their building complex, and competed with
traditional religious leaders for the hearts and souls of the natives. The New Mexico establishments more closely paralleled the central Mexican
doctrinas that in turn were based upon medieval European monasteries. Missions on the other sections of the northern frontier of New Spain were
congregaciones, meaning that the missionaries created new communities from scratch, and relocated indigenous peoples to the new communities. The
development of the mission cascos in these regions was different from patterns in New Mexico.
Documentation for building construction at the Baja California missions is more complete, and shows a transitional sequence from temporary to more
permanent buildings of stone and/or adobe. The first example is Loreto mission, established in 1697. There were two major phases of building
construction at Loreto mission. The first was between 1699 and 1707. Temporary structures served for the first two years, but then Juan Maria
Salvatierra,S.J., decided to build more permanent buildings and particularly a new and larger church. The church itself, constructed of adobe, took
five years to complete (1699-1704). When completed the church had dimensions of 55 x 17 feet, and was flanked by two wings of rooms also 55 feet long.
The wings contained, among other things, a residence for the missionary and a dormitory for single women, who were to be segregated from men at
night. A wall enclosed the complex,. Neophytes lived in two rows of adobe houses. The housing for the neophytes represented a step in the process of
converting a non-sedentary population into peoples residing in a town, the seat of civilized life.
Some forty years later, beginning in 1740, the Jesuits directed the construction of a new stone church, the structure that survives today after more
than two and a half centuries. It took a decade to complete the new church built of stone, and when completed in 1750 the new structure measured 150 x
20 feet (56 x 7 varas. 1 vara=.838 meters). The new church was the longest erected in the Peninsula. A new residence was built for the missionaries
across from the church on the mission plaza. It measured 67 x 31 feet, and became the cause for some criticism of the Jesuits because of the size of
the structure. The government later confiscated the building following the expulsion of the Jesuits, and it became the official residence of the
governor.
The completion of the stone church in 1750 and the residence for the missionaries marked the end of major building projects at Loreto mission.
However, there was routine maintenance and repairs to the existing structures, as well as small improvements. In 1795, for example, the Dominicans had
the floor of the church replaced with ladrillos, fired brick floor tiles.
Established in 1708, San Jose de Comondu occupied a site now known as Comondu Viejo until 1736. Julian Mayorga, S.J., directed the construction of an
adobe church and a residence built of stones set in mud. Following the relocation of the mission at the end of 1736 and upon the arrival of Francisco
Javier Wagner, S.J., in the following year, construction of a new casco began. Initial construction projects at the new site included the building of
an adobe church, residence for the missionaries of the same material, a storeroom, and dormitories for single women and men. Comondu was one of the
few older Jesuit missions where the Jesuits imposed this measure of social control. Writing in a 1744 report on Comondu, missionary Sebastian de
Sistiaga, S.J., noted that: ?The boys and girls are brought up separately in the main mission or town with the proper reserve, especially the girls,
who are placed in charge of some upright woman of prudent judgment, although an Indian, to take care of them.?
Comondu counted a sizeable population and hence labor force in the two decades following the relocation to the new site. In 1744, the mission had a
population of 513, the numbers declined to 387 in 1754, and further dropped to 350 eight years later in 1762. The population experienced decline
resulting from disease, particularly smallpox. However, the Franciscans still could mobilize a large labor force for a major construction project.
From about 1754 to 1760, the Jesuits directed the construction of a new stone church at Comondu as part of a major campaign to build larger churches
at a number of the older Peninsula missions including Loreto, San Francisco Xavier, and Mulege. Joseph de Utrera, S.J., visited Comondu in January of
1755, and reported on the progress of the new church. It was designed to have three naves and an arched ceiling, and was the only three-nave church
built in the Peninsula missions. The other churches, including the stone church at San Francisco Xavier, only had single naves. He reported that the
construction had already progressed on the central nave, but that the two outside naves had not advanced much. Construction of the new church reached
completion around 1760.
The 1771 report on the Peninsula missions written by Francisco Palou, O.F.M., noted of Comondu mission that ?It has a church, which, like part of the
dwelling, is of mason work with vaulted roof and the rest of stone, and all covered with tules.? The 1773 inventory prepared to complete the transfer
of the Baja California missions from the jurisdiction of the Franciscans to the Dominicans provide additional information on the stone church and the
other types of structures at Comondu and several other of the missions. The inventory described the stone church with three naves church, but did not
provide dimensions. A later report from 1793 noted the size of the church as 30 x 13 varas, or 25.1 x 10.8 meters. The inventory described the church
in the following terms: ?A church with three vaulted naves and three entrances, close to them on the inside are three basins for holy water. [It] is
paved with cut stone, and also has wooden grills, a vaulted choir loft in which there is an old organ and bassoon. There are three altars; the
principal altar is new and gold leafed, has a sculptured image of Saint Joseph with the Child, his halo in silver, and the blossom on his staff in
silver as well. There is also a sculptured image of Saint Michael [the Archangel], and seven panels depicting various saints.? There was also a
spacious residence for the missionaries built of stone. The structure also contained offices. Other buildings in the mission complex included several
granaries and storerooms, a forge, weaving room, tack room, and shoe shop. There was no mention of the dormitories built earlier for single women and
men. However, the Dominicans did later construct dormitories for single adults.
The report of building construction during the Dominican period is fragmentary, but a surviving report from 1796 lists the construction of a dormitory
with a patio for single men, as well as nine stone houses for Indians families. The construction of Indian housing and a dormitory for single men
reflected a shift in royal policy that stressed the more rapid assimilation of native peoples in the Americas, as well as greater concern for
standards of decency and mortality. Neophytes were to live in European-style houses, and unmarried men and women were to be strictly segregated. This
was a general initiative in the missions in the Californias. In 1793, the Dominicans noted that the church at Comondu was richly decorated with three
altars, 25 paintings, and six statues. It was also the widest of the mission churches. The residence of the missionaries was described as being of
stone and spacious.
Little remains of the great stone church and related structures built at Comondu. The Dominicans abandoned the mission in 1827 because of the greatly
reduced size of the indigenous population. The people of the small community of Comondu allowed the church to deteriorate, and used stone from the
structure for their own buildings. One section of the original mission complex has been converted into a small church for the use of the town.
Originally, the structure had two rooms, which suggests that it may have been a part of the residence for the missionaries. However, the dividing wall
was removed to enlarge the structure and convert it into the church. Stone ruins surround the converted church.
Beginning in the 1720s, the Jesuits expanded their missionary program south into the Magdalena Desert and Cape region. Remains of mission-era
structures exist only at three mission sites: San Luis Gonzaga, and the two sites of Dolores. There is some documentation on the development of the
mission cascos. The 1755 report noted of the buildings at La Pasion, the second site of Dolores mission, that there was no church structure yet, and
that a sala (reception room) was being used pending the construction of one. Moreover, the residence was small. The ruins at both sites today show
that the buildings were built of stone set in mortar, and the Jesuits directed the construction of complexes built on a modest scale. The buildings at
San Luis Gonzaga are the most intact for any of the southern missions. They consist of a two-towered stone chapel, and a residence of stone with rooms
built on three sides of an enclosed square. The aforementioned 1755 report provides important details to date the construction of the buildings. The
report notes that the residence complex built of stone and lime had been completed, and that construction of a new church was to begin. In the
interim, a hall in the recently completed residence complex served as the church. The church that stands today dates to after 1755.
The Jesuits then expanded northward into the large desert region in the center of the peninsula. The building complexes established in this difficult
desert environment passed through several stages of development before taking a final form, usually after a number of decades. The first stage
entailed the construction of temporary buildings. A 1755 report, for example, recorded the construction of temporary buildings at Santa Gertrudis
(est. 1751), a church and residence for the missionary. The buildings were constructed of wattle and daub, walls of saplings driven into the ground
covered with mud. . The new church was to have a length of twenty-five varas. The missionaries later directed the construction of more permanent
adobe or stone structures.
In some instances the missionaries hired masons from Mexico to direct construction projects, but generally the missionaries themselves designed and
directed the erection of new buildings. Their knowledge of architecture was either intuitive, or else based on books. This could lead to disaster, as
occurred at Guadalupe mission (est. 1720) in Baja California in 1744. In February of 1744, Juan Antonio Balthasar, S.J., conducted an official
visitation of Guadalupe mission, and described the church at the mission as ?the finest church in California.? Later in the year, following heavy
rains, the church collapsed killing around 100 neophytes. Writing a decade later during his visitation of the Peninsula missions, Joseph de Utrera,
S.J., noted: ?The residence [of the missionary at Guadalupe] is very good. The church collapsed now six [sic] years ago: about 100 people died. They
are now finishing a new and strong one.?
In 1771, Francisco Palou, O.F.M., described the site of Guadalupe mission in the following terms:
It is situated in a narrow valley on the side of a very high sierra, so that they had to labor a great deal to plan a suitable church and dwelling,
which both are of adobe and covered with tules. In the center of this Canada is an arroyo with very little water, which latter is collected by means
of an earthen dam, in order to irrigate the land, which requires no more than a fanega of seed grain to plant it. On the side of the said sierra, near
the mission buildings, there are some springs oozing water to the thickness of a thumb. It is fathered in a trough of masonry and serves to irrigate a
little garden that grows vegetables and some fruit-trees, like the fig, pomegranite, and a few grape-vines, although the latter do not thrive at this
mission.
The Jesuits chose the site because of the large indigenous population in the surrounding mountains, but at the same time the small valley chosen for
the mission had limited land and water for agriculture. There was a developed visita named San Miguel located some eight leagues (1 league = 2.6
miles) from the cabecera on the same stream. Improvements at San Miguel included a chapel and residence for the missionary, as well as an irrigation
system. A second visita named San Jose de Gracia, eighteen leagues from Guadalupe, also had an irrigation system with a dam, and irrigated fields.
The site was not ideal for the construction of a large building complex.
Not all building projects at the missions ended in disaster, and over time communities did emerge in the wilderness. Following the disaster of 1744,
as noted above, the Jesuits directed the construction of a new church at Guadalupe. This structure most likely was still in use in the 1770s. In a
1771 report the church and residence were described as being built of adobe, although a 1774 inventory describes the church and residence of being of
stone (perhaps stone and adobe?). This most likely was the structure under construction in the mid-1750s. Twenty years later, in 1793, the mission
had an adobe church with dimensions of 32 x 7 varas, which may also have been the structure erected in the 1750s. Little more than foundations remain
at the site today, but what remains provides an idea of the configuration of the mission casco, and it shows that indeed there was little room to
build at the site.
In contrast to the narrow confines of the site chosen for Guadalupe, the location of San Ignacio mission allowed for the construction of a larger
building complex. In 1755, Joseph de Utrera, S.J. described the residence of the missionaries as being well built, and the church passable but well
adorned. He also noted that other structures were to be built, and for that purpose 500 pine beams had been cut on Isla Trinidad. Sixteen years later,
in 1771, the church and residence of the missionaries were described as being built of adobe with tule roof, but construction had already begun on a
stone church. Further details on the buildings of the mission come from an inventory prepared in 1773 when the Franciscans turned the Peninsula
missions over to the Dominicans. The inventory for San Ignacio reported the adobe church and residence with xacal roof, and two granaries. It also
noted the progress in the construction of the new stone church, which was to have two towers. In some places the walls already reached six to seven
varas in height.
The Dominicans completed construction of the stone church, built with only one tower, in 1786. A 1793 report gave the dimensions of the church as 44
x 7 5/10 varas, making it one of the largest churches built at the Baja California missions. The well-preserved church can still be visited on the
main square of San Ignacio today. The church is flanked by stone rooms built with vaulted ceilings, that had a variety of uses. The completion of the
stone did not mark the end of building construction at San Ignacio, although some projects entailed repairs to existing buildings. In 1796, the
Dominicans had the roof to the sala (reception room) repaired, along with the roofs of residences of the neophytes. Three years later, in 1799, the
structures in the neophyte village were renovated, and two structures and a chapel were built at one of the developed ranchos.
The site chosen for Santa Gertrudis, as described above, was a narrow valley, and there was limited room for buildings. Therefore, the mission casco
was built on a small scale. As noted above, the first structures built in the 1750s were of wattle and daub, Jesuit missionary Jorge Retz directed the
construction of more permanent buildings in the late 1750s or 1760s. A 1771 report described the buildings in the following terms:
It [Santa Gertrudis mission] has an adobe church and dwelling which are covered with tules. The work of building up the pueblo with huts of adobe for
the Indians is finished.
Palou?s description shows that the first adobe structures at Santa Gertrudis were built of adobe with roofs of reeds laid over beams covered with
packed earth. This style of construction was adequate for the dry climate at the mission. The same church apparently existed in 1793, described in
similar terms as in 1771.
The Dominicans reported considerable building activity in the 1790s. The Dominicans directed the reconstruction of much of the mission casco, and
several of the annual reports specifically mentioned that newly built structures replaced older ones. Several important patterns emerge. First, as
they did at the other Peninsula missions, the Dominicans enhanced social control through the construction of a dormitory for single women and older
girls in 1801. This responded to a directive from the Bishop of Sonora, that in turn came from a greater stress by the royal government on the rapid
assimilation by the indigenous populations of the Americas, and the imposition of European standards of morality. The stone structure completed in
1796, a large section of the existing buildings at the mission site, did not contain a church. Rather, the 1796 annual report noted that the building
consisted of two bedrooms, a sala (reception room), and dispensary. The record is incomplete, but there is no reference between 1793 and 1801 to the
construction of a new church. This suggests that the adobe church mentioned in 1793 continued in use until at least the early years of the
nineteenth-century. Moreover, this suggests that the Dominican missionaries did not complete the project of reconstructing the mission casco in stone.
The configuration of the structures at Santa Gertrudis provides additional insights to the development of the mission buildings. Today, five stone
rooms survive from a larger series of structures that formed a large ?L,? with the central space enclosed by two walls. One of the structures that
does not survive, but was identified from the foundations, was a long structure that most likely was the adobe church mentioned in 1793. The other
rooms were small, and the current chapel most likely was not built to replace the adobe church. Based on the description from the 1796 annual report
the room that currently is the chapel may have been the sala or dispensary, and was converted to use as a chapel as the adobe church deteriorated and
became unserviceable.
The development of the building complex of San Francisco de Borja mission (est. 1762) closely parallels that of the previous mission. During six
years at the mission, Wenceslao Linck, S.J., directed the construction of a small adobe chapel and residence. Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, O.F.M., the
Franciscan who replaced Linck at San Francisco de Borja, directed the construction of a new building complex reportedly completed in 1771. The ruins
of these buildings can still be seen at the site. The 1773 inventory prepared by Lasuen, who later headed the Alta California establishments,
described the new buildings. Lasuen had replaced a small adobe church with a larger structure of the same material with a stone arch and a roof of
reeds and packed earth on roof beams. A 1793 report described the church as having dimensions of 32 x 7 varas. To the side of the church were three
wings of rooms that formed a square. On one side was the residence of the missionaries, on the second side of the square were two workrooms, and on
the third a hall. Other structures included a kitchen, two infirmaries, a granary, wine cellar, and a tack room.
Additionally, Lasuen directed the construction of improvements at two visitas. Structures at San Regis, an important farming station, included an
adobe chapel that measured 16 x 5 varas. A second unnamed ranch had adobe structures as well as corrals.
Lasuen?s complex formed a quadrangle similar to the building complexes later erected in Alta California, and virtually identical in configuration to
the structures he had built at San Diego mission when he took charge of that mission in the late 1770s following its destruction in 1774 during an
attack by hostile natives. At the end of 1783 a large building complex existed at San Diego that included an adobe church and sacristy, cemetery,
granary, dormitories for single women and men, and a soldiers barracks with a guardhouse. The buildings formed three wings, and a wall enclosed the
square, which made the complex easy to defend. Outside of the quadrangle were a tannery and several corrals. In 1783, Lasuen had two rooms in the
southern wing completely rebuilt, adjoining rooms remodeled with their walls being raised and a corridor with 11 pillars added to the wing. Lasuen
also had a dormitory for vaqueros of palizada built in the Valle de San Luis.
The Dominicans formed a new quadrangle with the completion in 1801 of a new and larger stone church. In an 1801 report, the Dominicans reported the
completion of a new residence for the missionaries built of stone, and the near completion of a new church-actually never completed. These are the
structures that can be seen at the site today.
The building complexes erected by the Dominicans in the La Frontera region of Baja California marked a transition in the major trend of mission
architecture in the missions further south. The building complexes of the older Jesuit missions originally may have been built of adobe bricks, but in
the 1750s the Black Robes initiated a campaign to replace older churches and other structures with stone buildings. The best examples are the
complexes of Loreto, San Francisco Xavier, Mulege, and Comondu. Moreover, although the Jesuit missions were generally built on a grid plan, they were
not always built in the form of an enclosed quadrangle or were not surrounded by walls intended for defense.
The missions in La Frontera in northern Baja California were generally built on a smaller scale, reflecting the smaller size of the neophyte
population and hence the size of the labor force. Buildings were of adobe, with roofs of compacted earth on top of reeds and roof beams. Finally, the
building complexes incorporated defensive features such as walls enclosing the missions and in some instances defensive towers built along the
perimeter. Typical was the first site of Rosario mission and Santa Catalina mission. Fully developed building complex incorporated defensive features
such as small towers at strategic points along the surrounding wall.
The record of building construction in the missions of La Frontera is spotty at best, except in the case of Santo Tomas established in 1791. Between
1791 and 1794, the Dominicans directed the construction of a small building complex that included a church and residence (see Table 3.1). In 1794,
the Dominicans moved the mission to a new site. There is a continuous record of seven years construction at Santo Tomas following the relocation of
the mission in 1794. In the first year following the relocation of the mission the Dominican missionaries directed the construction of an adobe chapel
and residence for the missionaries. Construction in the following years consisted of the laying in of seventy varas of foundation laid for new
buildings. In 1796, several projects were completed including an adobe structure containing a reception room (sala), two bedrooms, another room, and a
common area. A dispensary was built, as well as dormitories for single men and single women. A weaving room with an adjoining corral was built. The
construction of dormitories reflected the greater government concern for establishing morality among the indigenous population of Spanish America. In
1797, the Dominicans directed the construction of a corral for sheep and goats, and the laying of 1,400 varas of foundation for building projects. In
1799, four adobe structures were built measuring 20, 14, 7, and 6 varas in length respectively, and foundations were laid for a new church. Work
continued on the church in 1800, and corridor, weaving room, and granary were built. Finally, in 1801 the adobe church begun in 1799 was completed. It
measured 30 x 6 varas. Two storerooms, each measuring 10 x 8 varas were built, as well as a new dormitory for single women and girls measuring 9 x 6
varas.
The record of building construction at Santo Tomas shows a pattern also documented for other missions. The church and residence for the missionaries
received high priority, but in the last decades of the eighteenth-century the construction of dormitories to separate unmarried men and women also had
top priority. Buildings for economic activities followed, and as the population and supply of labor available at the mission grew, the missionaries
directed the construction of a larger and more impressive church.
The missionaries at several of the missions directed the construction of smaller building complexes at ranchos, satellite settlements developed as
centers of farming or ranching. There are references to developed ranchos at several of the missions of La Frontera, including, San Jose (Rosario
mission), San Telmo (Santo Domingo), and Descanso (San Miguel). The Dominicans had buildings erected at all three ranchos, and moved Rosario mission
to the San Jose site in 1802 three years following the construction of buildings at the site and following the drying of a spring near the first site
of the mission. The construction record of San Telmo is the most complete. In 1796, the Dominicans directed the construction of a adobe structure
measuring 50 varas in length built at Rancho San Telmo. The building contained a reception room, bedroom, granary, dispensary, and chapel. A corral
and residence for the overseer were also built. In the following year a chapel was built at San Telmo, and three structures begun in 1796 were
completed with the addition of a roof. Buildings at San Telmo were whitewashed. The development of San Telmo continued in 1798 with the construction
of a building that contained a granary, dispensary, and chapel. Lands for growing corn were cleared. In 1799, an adobe corral was built at San Telmo,
as well as a residence for workers assigned to San Telmo. The Dominicans had A dam and irrigation ditch added, and pillars were placed around a pond
of water to prevent cattle from entering it. The Dominicans developed San Telmo as a major pueblo de visita or satellite settlement.
At about the same time that the Jesuits established the first missions in Baja California, the Black Robes under the leadership of Eusebio Kino,
S.J., also pushed the Sonora mission frontier into the region known by the Spaniards as the Pimeria Alta (northern Sonora and southern Arizona). Kino
established a network of missions and visitas at existing indigenous settlements the Spaniards called rancherias. The rancheria settlement pattern was
dispersed, with small clusters of family compounds spread over a large area. Some scholars have argued that the dispersed settlement was a response to
epidemics of newly introduced Old World crowd diseases such as smallpox and measles that spread easily in dense settlements. The Jesuit presence in
the region was relatively weak until the 1750s, when the government funded more missionaries for northern Sonora. Up until that point the degree of
change in settlement patterns and the development of mission building complexes was uneven across the region.
The Jesuits and later the Franciscans developed the Pimeria Alta missions as congregaciones, bringing the indigenous populations to live at the
mission centers in housing organized on the basis of a grid plan. The church was to be at the center of the new community, and was to be the dominant
structure on the main square. A convento complex adjoined the church. The convento was the one element of the mission casco to reflect the monastic
ideal of isolation from the secular world, and they generally were enclosed as at Guevavi mission. The convento at Guevavi was built on a modest scale
when compared to other missions in the region and the Jesuit missions of Paraguay, but still conformed to the ideal. Three wings of rooms formed an
enclosed square with the church, providing the missionary with interior space cut off from the world.
Little remains today of indigenous housing at the mission sites, but earlier studies do show two forms of housing. At Bisanig, for example, a pueblo
de visita (visiting station), individual housing units for indigenous families were clustered around the square fronting the church, which seems to
have been the most common configuration in the Pimeria Alta missions. The arrangement at Cocospera was the exception to the rule. Subject to raids by
hostile indigenous groups, the missionaries stationed at Cocospera built the mission complex on a small knoll, and incorporated measures for defense
within the design. A wall partially surrounded the mission, and there were two groups of buildings within the wall besides the church. One was four
wings of rooms west of the church almost completely enclosed that contained dwellings for the indigenous population, workshops, etc. The residence of
the missionary was located just east of the church.
Defensive features figured into the building of the Franciscan missions in Texas, also subject to raids by hostile indigenous groups. Walls
surrounded the missions, and bastions armed with cannons defended the walls at several of the sites. Although built on a smaller scale than other
missions in Texas, the development of the casco at Rosario mission (established in 1754) was typical. The construction of Rosario mission passed
through at least two stages. The first buildings, completed early in 1755, were built of wood. A document from January of 1755 noted that the mission
consisted of ?A decent [wooden] church, dwellings for the minister and other necessary houses and offices{.}? A decade later, in 1767, Solis
described the mission buildings in the following terms:
The mission buildings and living-quarters of the priests, as well as those of the Indians and soldiers, are good structures and sufficiently large. A
very good palisade [wooden stakes driven into the ground], formed of thick, strong stakes, protects the mission from attack. The church, a very fine,
frame building, is white washed and beautifully decorated. On the inside it is plastered with clay, and it is beautifully roofed with strong beams and
shingles.
The structures that made up Rosario mission in 1768, fourteen years after its establishment, were still of wood. The transition to more permanent
building materials at Rosario came later.
As will be discussed in more detail below, the Franciscans stationed at Rosario experienced troubles with the neophytes, and abandoned the mission
for about a decade. In a 1789 description of the mission, the following comment was made: ?Although with regard to the mission, it will not cost much
to finish rebuilding it, since the convent, sacristy, surrounding wall and two other rooms are good. Only the church has fallen.? A 1790 document
provided a more detailed assessment of the condition of the mission:
With regard to the fabrication or the construction of the mission, the little wall that surrounds it is very deteriorated because it is old and no
care has been taken of it. The house in which the Father Minister lives is without a roof, although its walls remain strong and without the least
change. As for the church, there are not even ruins. The present priest used a small hut with a thatched roof [and it is] so small that the altar and
confessional barely fit. The present dwelling of the father is a small house with a roof of sod [which is] very uncomfortable as is [the house] of the
soldiers and some servants who attend him.
Between 1790 and 1791, Fr. Jaudenes directed the reconstruction of Rosario mission, and staged the rededication of the mission church on November 9,
1791. The reconstruction used stone instead of wood as the building material, and the ruins at the mission site today date to the 1790-1791
construction period. However, the rebuilt mission only lasted for a little more than a decade. In 1804, Fr. Huerta reported that ??a part of the house
and a section of the church in the portion by the door [have] fallen [because of] a rain that occurred the 20th and 24th of this month [August].
Several sections of the wall [surrounding the mission] also fell during [the rain].? In 1805, Fr. Huerta moved with the remaining neophytes to
Refugio mission closer to the coast, and in 1807 Rosario and Refugio missions were formally merged. The abandoned mission fell into ruin.
The construction of stone buildings at Rosario may have begun as early as the late 1770s, but may not have been completed by the time of a major
Indians revolt that lead to the abandonment of the mission in 1779. The accounts of the state of the mission in 1790 suggest that some structures were
considered to be in good enough condition to use, but the church reportedly was in poor condition. The construction project of 1790-1791 probably
entailed completion or repair of the church, and perhaps cosmetic work on the other existing structures. When completed in 1791, Rosario mission was
built with a defensive wall surrounding the main structures, which was typical of the missions built in Texas that were vulnerable attacks from
Apaches and Comanches. Within the walls were the church, residence for the missionaries, and other structures that may have included workshops and/or
storerooms/granary. Dwellings for the Indians were apparently also located within the walls, as Solis noted in 1767 (see Figure 3.1).
The California missions contained many architectural features in common with the Jesuit missions of Paraguay, such as the use of tile roofs and
colonnades added to buildings to provide protection from the rain and shade. Documentation for the sequence of building construction is fairly
complete, and we examine in detail the development of the building complex at La Purisima mission, established in 1788.
The Franciscans established La Purisima in the spring of 1788 at a Chumash village known as Salsacupi. Over the course of twenty-four years that they
occupied the site, the Franciscans directed the construction of an extensive casco at the Salsacupi site. Then in December of 1812 a strong earthquake
followed by heavy rains heavily damaged the mission, and several months later the Franciscans moved the mission to a new site several miles away know
as Los Berros. Considerable historical and archaeological data exists to detail the construction of the buildings at both sites of the mission.
The Franciscan missionaries stationed at La Purisima may have had general notions about building construction, but at the same time they were by no
stretch of the imagination skilled architects. In hindsight, and given the high level of seismic activity in California, the very choice of the site
for the mission buildings proved to be a bad one. Moreover, some of the structures in the casco, particularly several multistory granaries/storerooms,
were especially vulnerable to earthquake damage. Writing in March of 1813, Mariano Payeras, O.F.M., who had not been at La Purisima during most of the
construction activity at the casco, noted that,
Salsacupi is on a hill sloping from south to north. Its buildings, located on a square, are necessarily uneven in their floors and roof ridges.
Although with much industry and effort, utilizing excavations, embankments and supports, the builders were able to reduce by half the unsuitability of
its terrain for buildings ,? they could not overcome the imperious and unmerciful violence of a very severe earthquake, because every violent thing
seeks its center. It is natural that the earthquake, which knocked down every building on a slope, including those of the Ortegas, as well as our
orchards and the church along with everything else here, should have the same direction or thrust as its vibrations. Therefore, on those hills which
slope south, buildings fell towards the south; on those sloping north, they fell to the north? Now we are faced with the even more difficult problem
of a new establishment. We are unable to make profitable use of the old, since there is no room to build on this side next to Salsacupi, and to do so
would be to expose us to the same danger that the buildings would be obliged to suffer from the cruel weather.
In discussing plans to move to a new site, Payeras noted that ??the other [Franciscan missionary] will go to Los Berros to establish a medium-sized,
but strong, mission so that we might carry out the planned transfer in an orderly way and without any great worry to the priests and their flock. ?
Apparently the lesson of the devastating 1812 earthquake had taught Payeras the need to rebuild on a smaller scale, and to build structures that were
stronger and hence more earthquake resistant. The casco at Salsacupi, although built on a large scale, had proven to be vulnerable to earthquake
damage.
Table 3.2 summarizes the record of building construction at Salsacupi based on the annual reports prepared each year by the missionaries. Based on
several decades of archaeological testing at the Salsacupi site, archaeologist Julia Costello developed a diagram that shows the hypothetical
configuration of the mission quadrangle, and the plan for the mission was distinct from the other establishments in California since the large church
completed at the end of 1802 divided the quadrangle (see Figure 3.2). The construction of the casco at Salsacupi also proceeded fairly rapidly, and in
thirteen years the large quadrangle and church reached completion. In 1788, the Franciscans had temporary wattle and daub structures built, including
a chapel and residence for themselves. In the following year construction of permanent adobe structures began. The first adobe structure was the
church built in 1789 and enlarged three years later in 1792.
In excavations in 1991 and 1992, archaeologist Julia Costello identified what she called the ?Courtyard Building.? Costello described the elements
excavated from the ?Courtyard Building? in the following terms:
Most of a tile floor had been cleaned off with heavy equipment several decades ago. Small surface exposures and some soundings defined a tile floor
set in a diamond pattern with a square bordering row.
In the 1970s, workers had exposed floor tiles laid in a diamond pattern in the structure, and Costello?s excavations located foundations as well as
surviving floor tiles not removed during the previous work. Several facts strongly indicate that the ?Courtyard Building? indeed was the adobe church
built in 1789. The location of the structure within the larger complex, just behind the larger second adobe church built between 1798 and 1802,
indicates that this was the first church. The dimensions of the building are close to the dimensions reported in the 1789, and in the 1792 annual
report when the church was enlarged. Finally, the diamond pattern floor tiles not commonly found in what can be considered utilitarian structures
suggest a special use for the ?Courtyard Building,? such as the church.
During the decade of the 1790s the Franciscans congregated hundreds of Chumash to the growing community, and the mission population grew rapidly in
total numbers. At the end of 1789, when the first adobe church reached completion, 151 Chumash lived at the mission. The number reached 920 in 1798,
when the Franciscans initiated construction on a new and larger church that took four years to build (1798-1802-dedicated in February of 1803). The
rapid population expansion rendered the 1789 church too small, even after being enlarged in 1792. There is contradictory information regarding the
church. A series of important historical photographs taken beginning around 1880 document the ruins of the first mission site, and the tall walls of
what apparently is the second adobe church are clearly visible over the lower surrounding walls of structures dedicated to more mundane purposes. The
photographs suggest that the church was both long and tall. Several early descriptions of the ruins at the first site suggested dimensions of 200? x
60? and 100? x 60? for the structure. Based on a careful analysis of the historic photographs, one scholar challenged the earlier assumptions about
the size of the church structure.
At first glance it appears from early photographs that the church was two stories high because there were clearly two levels of beam holes in the
structure which had dominated the ruins into the first decade of this century. However, a closer examination shows possibly five cross walls, clearly
indicating a series of at least four rooms in a line behind the church. Some six or more courses of adobe above the top row of beam holes could
indicate that there was a loft or even a third story on top. Indications of windows with arched tops argue against this being the center wall of a
building two rooms deep. Another unusual feature of this church is its placement jutting out into the quadrangle rather than constituting one wing of
it. The church with its row of rooms behind it effectively divided the quadrangle in two, and a wall pierced by an arched doorway completed the
separation. Had the church been centrally placed within the block it would have followed one significant, though uncommon, plan known in Spanish and
Mexican architecture, but its off-center placement makes it unique).
The scholar further rejected the earlier interpretation that the church may have measured as long as 200 feet. Archaeologist Costello provided
additional important details on the 1802 church. Costello calculated the dimensions of the church as 99.4 feet x 54.4 feet, which is more realistic
given the limitations of building with adobe bricks. Moreover, when the four structures behind the church are included, the entire line of buildings
measured 205.6 feet.
Subsequent annual reports record considerable building activity, but did not always include the use of the new structures. The general pattern at the
other missions shows that in addition to a church, the first permanent buildings would also include quarters for the missionaries as well as
dormitories for single women and older girls entering puberty. For the first two years at the mission, the Franciscans probably continued to use the
temporary residence built in 1788. They probably then occupied new quarters built sometime in the early 1790s. The 1790 annual report notes the
construction of seven rooms, but not the use of the rooms. It is possible that these structures included a new residence for the missionaries. The
1797 report notes the construction of a new residence for the missionaries most likely was located in the east wing (see Table 3.2).
The Franciscans also provided housing for support staff. The government stationed a handful of soldiers, the escolta, at each mission to protect the
missionaries and hopefully control the indigenous neophytes. The record suggests that the Franciscans had at least two and probably three barracks
built for the escolta. The first may have been in 1791, when they reported the construction of three buildings outside of the main complex. The report
did not indicate the use of the three buildings, but one of the three could have been a barracks for the soldiers. Three years later, in 1794, the
missionaries reported the building of another barracks, a new and presumably larger barracks in 1798. Foundations north of the main quadrangle very
well may have been from the last barracks erected at the first site. The Franciscans routinely hired an overseer generally from the ranks of the
escolta. The 1794 report lists the construction of a residence for the overseer. The same report also noted the construction of a residence for
visitors to the mission (see Table 3.2).
The Chumash neophytes lived in several types of housing during the development of the first site of La Purisima mission. Initially, families
continued to live in traditional grass huts. However, this was a temporary expedient, pending the completion of other elements of the main building
complex. As was the case at the other missions, the Franciscans stationed at La Purisima envisioned an orderly indigenous community with neophytes
living in adobe European-style housing. In the last decades of the eighteenth-century the Spanish Crown promoted policies of more rapid assimilation
of the indigenous populations of the Americas. This included not only dress, but also housing. The annual reports do not record the date of
construction of adobe Indian housing at La Purisima. However, the annual report prepared by Fr. Mariano Payeras, O.F.M., reporting on damage caused to
the mission by a powerful earthquake in December of 1812, noted that: ?A hundred neophytes? houses and the pozole building, which were all made of
adobe and mortar and roofed with tile, are useless.? A document written by Payeras in March 1813 confirmed the existence of housing for the neophytes
built of tile: ?After Mission La Purisima suffered the strongest of earthquakes on this past feast of the Apostle Santo Tomas, we subsequently learned
that its buildings, including the rancheria [emphasis added] and orchard fence, being all of adobe and covered with tiles, were useless.?
When did the Franciscans direct the construction of housing for the neophytes? A report written on conditions at La Purisima in 1800 provides clues
to the range for the construction dates of the neophyte housing. According to the report, ?The habitations of the Indians are the same to which they
were accustomed in the pagan state, because until now it has not been possible to provide more convenient lodgings. The construction of the necessary
buildings for the storing of the crops and for keeping other goods left no time for it.? This places the construction of neophyte housing in one of
two time periods between 1800 and 1809: either 1801-1803; or 1805-1809. There is a gap in the extant annual reports for the years 1799-1809.
Franciscan historian Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., viewed reports from a large archive maintained in San Francisco before the destruction of the
documents in the fire that followed the 1906 earthquake, and only reported building activities in several year for which the original reports no
longer survive. Either the reports did not record the building of neophyte housing, or else Engelhardt did not bother to note the construction of
housing for the neophytes.
The same 1800 report provides additional details on housing for the neophytes. The report mentions the dormitory for single women and older girls.
The annual reports do not specifically mention the construction of the dormitory, but, because of the concern that the Franciscans had about Indian
sexuality, dormitories for women were generally among the first buildings constructed. The report described the dormitory as being:
The apartment for the single women is a room fourteen yards [varas] square. Almost all around the walls inside are the bunks constructed of good
boards, a little more than five palms from the floor, and proportionately wide. There they spread their mats and sleep very comfortably. In the same
apartment they have a convenient place for their necessities. During the day they are not obliged to stay within, nor in any other apartment, unless
it be as punishment for some misdeed.
The same document shows that the Franciscans did not have the same concerns about sexual misconduct by single male neophytes. According to the report:
?The single men, after they have recited the prayers near the apartments of the Fathers, are free to retire to their homes, or to the pozolera, or
they may remain to sleep in the corridors, which like the pozolera is outside the cloister.?
Much of the building construction at the first site of La Purisima mission was of structures associated in different ways with the mission economy.
In the 1790s, when most of the casco took form, the Franciscans did not always report the use of all of the structures built, but enough information
did make it into the annual reports to give some indications. One class of buildings was storerooms used for different purposes. In 1794, the
Franciscans had a storeroom built, three new storerooms in 1796, and a tack room used to house tack for horses and oxen. The Franciscans taught the
neophytes certain craft skills, and had shops built for these activities. One example was the carpenter shop built in 1794. Finally, the Franciscans
had granaries built to store the harvested crops, and the annual reports record the construction of granaries in 1789, 1791, and 1795 (see Table 3.2).
The location of most of these structures within the casco cannot be determined. However, there were four rooms located behind the second church
completed in 1802 that may have been granaries.
The photographs from the late nineteenth-century show that these rooms were two stories in height, and may have also contained half lofts that would
have been used for drying grain. One author described these rooms in the following terms:
At first glance it appears from early photographs that the church was two stories high because there were clearly two levels of beam holes in the
structure which had dominated the ruins into the first decade of this century. However, a closer examination shows possibly five cross walls, clearly
indicating a series of at least four rooms in a line behind the church. Some six or more courses of adobes above the top row of beam holes could
indicate that there was a loft or even a third story on top. Indications of windows with arched tops argue against this being the center wall of a
building two rooms deep.
The historic photographs indicate that these structures were built with walls two to 2 ? adobes thick, and had buttresses. However, even with
additional stabilizing support from buttresses, these tall structures would have been vulnerable to earthquake damage.
The story of the mission casco is one not only of the construction of new buildings, but also maintenance of existing ones that required considerable
indigenous labor. If unprotected adobe, unfired bricks, dissolves with rainfall and groundwater. Routine maintenance included whitewashing adobe
walls, and adjustment to and repair of tile roofs that protected adobe walls from rainfall. Most of these repair activities were routine, and did not
enter the document record other than in general references. However, sometimes comments on repairs to existing building enter into documents that
otherwise focus on different topics. An example of this comes from a letter of January 10, 1810 from Payeras to fellow Franciscan Estevan Tapis,
O.F.M. In a brief passage in the longer document Payeras notes that: ?I fixed the old house, roofing it with the materials from the house where Your
Reverence spent the night. I also whitewashed it and at last it is ready for the governor, Your Reverence, and other laymen and priests who might come
to honor it whenever they wish.? Payeras most likely referred to the quarters for guests to the mission built in 1794.
The earthquake that struck the Santa Barbara Channel region on December 21, 1812 severely damaged the buildings at Salsacupi, and was followed by
heavy rains that further damaged the buildings. Several documents described the extent of the damage. The first was the annual report written several
weeks after the earthquake. The report noted that,
The extraordinary and dreadful earthquake which this mission suffered on the memorable day of the glorious Apostle Santo Tomas, ruined the church
completely; destroyed the altar, various images, and paintings and ruined the greater part of its furnishings. The vestments were not destroyed
because they were inside the drawers. Some of its buildings have collapsed, but others, if the damage does not continue, might be restored to use
after thorough repair, not as living quarters, but rather for minor uses which do not require as much security. A hundred neophytes? houses and the
pozole building, which were all made of adobe and mortar and roofed with tile, are useless. Even the orchard?s adobe wall, which is covered with tile,
is either collapsed or leaning so that the damaged parts will scarcely provide any material for the one that later on must be built?The most necessary
items were dug out quickly, and what is most urgent has been fixed. A large Indian hut has been made over into a church, and two huts are serving as
primitive lodging for the priests. We will continue to build the essential buildings out of wood and grass until the earth quiets down and experience
shows us the most proper methods for the later buildings.
Several months later, in March of 1813, Payeras wrote a second description of the damage to the mission buildings.
To see what damage had been done, we inspected the interior of the storehouses and we found sadly that all of them are useless from foundation to
roof; that the church is destroyed completely; and that neither priests, nor soldiers, nor the neophytes want to, nor can, live without fear and
danger in their partly collapsed, partly leaning, and completely cracked quarters?But our suffering is not lessened by knowing that to rebuild in this
location, which is limited by what is already built, we must first tear down with obvious danger what has remained standing, clear off debris, and dig
up even the foundations, which, like the buildings, are cracked. Then we must begin again to build in such a badly situated and defective location.
Payeras wrote in March of 1813 to ask for permission to move the mission to a site several miles away called Los Berros. Payeras received permission,
and relocated the mission to Los Berros in April of the same year. Payeras directed the construction of a new casco that was very different from the
complex destroyed at Salsacupi. The 1813 annual report described the first structures built at Los Berros in the following terms: ?All the structures
essential to the mission have been temporarily built (though with the austerity that must be understood) of wood and roofed with tile. A church which
holds all of the people was constructed of adobe over a heavy wooden frame.? Payeras had permanent structures at Los Berros built that hopefully
would withstand future earthquakes, and they were low and squat. Moreover, the Franciscan abandoned the more conventional quadrangle, and had the
casco built at the base of a ridge along a rough line. Neuerburg described the configuration of the buildings at Los Berros in the following terms:
Single, isolated, multipurpose buildings were found at some of the mission ranchos, but only this and that at San Fernando are found at the missions
themselves. The casa de los Padres at San Fernando was built after a completed quadrangle already existed and probably was intended to be the first
element of a new grander complex. Only with difficulty could the building at La Purisima [built in 1815] have been made part of a traditional
quadrangle in the location chosen. Why the builders of La Purisima decided to line up the buildings along one side of the valley remains a mystery; no
other mission followed suit. However, no other mission is located in such a narrow valley.
The solution to the ?mystery? most likely resides in the traumatic experience of having survived a severe earthquake that destroyed most of the
buildings at Salsacupi and particularly the multi-story granaries behind the church, and Payeras?s decision to build a ?medium-sized-but solid and
strong-mission[.]? Annual reports from 1815, 1816, and 1818 described the three main structures erected at Los Berros:
[1815] The temporary ones [buildings] are being repaired: The wooden ones, which are in danger of collapse are being propped up; and a hundred varas
of double walled buildings -an adobe and a half thick with a tile roof- have been built. These serve as residence for the priests and include servants
quarters, guest rooms, a chapel, and the remainder as a workhouse.
[1816 A building with] a corridor on both sides has been constructed, 100 varas long and six varas wide, one adobe thick with a tile roof. It is to be
used for the guardhouse, residences for the soldiers, for the majordomos [overseers], and shops for carpentry, and the new looms. Also another
building 50 varas long has been built with the same materials for sheltering the sick. An equal length of the old building was repaired as an
infirmary for women.
[1818] Because the framework fell, in the same place a temporary church of adobe was built with a tile roof, loft, sacristy and counter sacristy.
The reports show a more modest program of building construction than at Salsacupi, but the range of uses was represented from the sacred to profane.
There were residences for the priests, the soldiers stationed at the mission, and overseers hired by the Franciscans to manage the mission estates.
There were also workshops, the sacred space of the church, and infirmaries segregated on the basis of gender to tend to the many maladies of the
indigenous neophytes. There were few references in the documentary record on housing for the indigenous population, but archaeological excavations
uncovered two long adobe structures with a combined length of 532 feet, divided into small two-room apartments for the neophytes.
The Building of the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay
The Jesuits in the first decades of the seventeenth-century relocated the missions in response to external threats, as well as in response to the
growth of the neophyte populations that resulted in the establishment of new missions. The early history of the reducciones closely paralleled that of
the Franciscan establishments in Florida. Many of the Florida missions occupied multiple sites, and had to be rebuilt after relocation to a new site.
The buildings of the Florida missions consisted of less permanent materials such as wood or wattle and daub with thatch roofs. The major difference,
however, is that the Florida missions did not pass through a transition to the use of more durable building construction materials, as was the case in
Paraguay and the missions of the northern fringe of New Spain.
The early reports on the Jesuit missions of Paraguay record the use of wood or wattle and daub as the primary building materials for the churches and
other structures of the new communities. Building with wood, tapia (walls of earth compressed in a mold), or wattle and daub allowed the rapid
completion of buildings, particularly larger structures such as churches. The cartas anuas record the construction of a number of churches in
relatively short periods of time: at San Miguel between 1641 and 1643; San Ignacio and Santa Ana in 1644; Loreto 1645-1646; Corpus Christi and
Martires in 1647-1649; San Francisco Javier in 1647; Candelaria in 1653; and at San Tome in the years 1663-1666. In the early phase buildings had
thatch roofs, but the Jesuits later had burnt roof tiles added because of
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[1818] Because the framework fell, in the same place a temporary church of adobe was built with a tile roof, loft, sacristy and counter sacristy.
The reports show a more modest program of building construction than at Salsacupi, but the range of uses was represented from the sacred to profane.
There were residences for the priests, the soldiers stationed at the mission, and overseers hired by the Franciscans to manage the mission estates.
There were also workshops, the sacred space of the church, and infirmaries segregated on the basis of gender to tend to the many maladies of the
indigenous neophytes. There were few references in the documentary record on housing for the indigenous population, but archaeological excavations
uncovered two long adobe structures with a combined length of 532 feet, divided into small two-room apartments for the neophytes.
The Building of the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay
The Jesuits in the first decades of the seventeenth-century relocated the missions in response to external threats, as well as in response to the
growth of the neophyte populations that resulted in the establishment of new missions. The early history of the reducciones closely paralleled that of
the Franciscan establishments in Florida. Many of the Florida missions occupied multiple sites, and had to be rebuilt after relocation to a new site.
The buildings of the Florida missions consisted of less permanent materials such as wood or wattle and daub with thatch roofs. The major difference,
however, is that the Florida missions did not pass through a transition to the use of more durable building construction materials, as was the case in
Paraguay and the missions of the northern fringe of New Spain.
The early reports on the Jesuit missions of Paraguay record the use of wood or wattle and daub as the primary building materials for the churches and
other structures of the new communities. Building with wood, tapia (walls of earth compressed in a mold), or wattle and daub allowed the rapid
completion of buildings, particularly larger structures such as churches. The cartas anuas record the construction of a number of churches in
relatively short periods of time: at San Miguel between 1641 and 1643; San Ignacio and Santa Ana in 1644; Loreto 1645-1646; Corpus Christi and
Martires in 1647-1649; San Francisco Javier in 1647; Candelaria in 1653; and at San Tome in the years 1663-1666. In the early phase buildings had
thatch roofs, but the Jesuits later had burnt roof tiles added because of fires that destroyed mission buildings with thatch roofs. The first
references to the use of tiles date to the 1630s and 1640s. As the threat of attack faded and the new mission communities achieved a level of
stability, the Jesuits directed the construction of more permanent buildings with adobe walls. The first references to the use of adobe in
construction date to 1644.
In the eighteenth-century the Jesuits at many of the reducciones directed the reconstruction of many buildings of stone. Nevertheless, during this
later phase of reconstruction, the Jesuits did not have all buildings rebuilt of stone, and in particular the black robes had housing for the
Guarani populations built of less durable materials. In 1749, for example, a memorial for Loreto mandated the construction of housing for the Guarani
neophytes with tile roofs to avoid the hazard of fire with thatch roofs. When the Crown ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, local officials
prepared detailed inventories of the missions including the buildings. The Guarani housing at Aposteles, for example, consisted of structures of
stone, tapia or adobe, and wattle and daub, but all roofed with tiles. Substantial ruins of neophytes housing does not survive at most of the
missions. One exception is at Trinidad, where the remains of arcades stone housing units can been seen today.
The record shows planning in the building of the mission complexes, although the development of a new town did not always conform to reasonable
expectations for urban planning. A 1714 memorial for Nuestra Senora la Fe notes:
Because this village is badly formed or placed they don?t have where to expand well, it is not by luck that they remove from the church and the
residence of the Fathers the houses that have to be built again, from where it is very inconvenient to minister promptly, as should be done with the
sick and the other people who live at a distance, and in addition to this our residence occupies most of the hill, that should be occupied by the town
or houses of the Indians.
The missionaries themselves were amateur architects at best, as acknowledged by Antonio Sepp, S.J., the founder of San Juan Bautista. Sepp noted that
he did not have formal training as an architect, but did state that he had traveled around Europe and took ideas for the planning of the new mission
from that experience. Nevertheless, Sepp is recognized as having been one of the more skilled missionary-architects. However, during the
eighteenth-century phase of reconstruction the missionaries received helped from several Jesuit lay brothers who worked on several churches. The first
was Jose Brasanelli, who was also a painter and sculpture. He worked on the churches at Itapua, San Francisco de Borja, Loreto (see Figure 2.3), and
Santa Ana. He may also have worked on the churches San Francisco Javier and San Ignacio Mini. The most important of the eighteenth-century architects
was Juan Bautista Primoli. Before working in the missions Primoli had designed buildings in Buenos Aires and Cordoba. Primoli was responsible for the
churches of San Miguel and Concepcion, and also completed the church of Trinidad along with Fr. Jose Grimau, S.J..
The Jesuits directed the construction of large and impressive churches during the eighteenth-century building phase in the missions. The church at
San Miguel is a fine example of the mission architecture. Built between 1735 and around 1744 to 1747, the stone church had three naves. The
neighboring church at San Lorenzo, also built of stone, reportedly had five naves, and measured 93 x 43 varas. Details on construction at the Jesuit
missions is far from complete, but documents do provide some clues to the development of mission building complexes or at least the churches. The
record indicates the construction of four churches at San Juan Bautista, established in 1697. The first two built in 1697 and 1698 respectively were
temporary structures, and a new church was built in 1708. Six years later in 1714 work began on a permanent stone church, and a bell tower was added
in 1724.
What did the missions look like at the time of the Jesuit expulsion in 1768. It should be noted that the expulsion left major church construction
projects incomplete. The most notable was the great stone church at Jesus de Tavarangue left without a roof and never completed despite efforts made
by the priests that replaced the black robes. Ruins today evoke images of the great churches built in the decades prior to the removal of the Jesuits.
The 1768 inventory prepared for San Ignacio Mini following the expulsion described a well decorated three nave church with three altars in addition to
the main altar. The 1768 inventory for Santa Ana also describes a well decorated three nave church with a wooden bell tower. Adjoining the church was
the cloister that contained the residence of the missionaries, offices, and different shops used in craft industries all built around two patios. The
cemetery was divided into four parts with men buried separately from women, and boys separate from girls. Next to the cemetery was the coti guazu, the
dormitory for widows and the wives of men who had run away from the mission, playing a similar role to the dormitories built in the California
missions. Behind the church and cloister was the walled orchard planted with a variety of fruits. Houses for the Guarani neophytes occupied three
sides of the main square.
Contemporary diagrams of San Miguel and San Juan Bautista prepared c. 1756 (see Figures 3.4 & 3.5) as well as diagrams from 1784 (Figures 3.6-3..10)
provide further evidence for the configuration of the mission casco, as well as the common plan used for the development and configuration of the
mission complexes. The plaza was the center of the two communities, and the church, cloister, craft shops, and neophyte housing flanked the plaza on
four sides. The church, the all-important sacred precinct, dominated the community. The configuration of the California missions was similar.
Conclusions
Jesuit, Franciscan, and Dominican missionaries attempted to create primitive utopian Christian communities on the northern frontier of New Spain and
Paraguay, and the building complexes of the missions provided the template for the new ordered societies. European and New World convents and
monasteries as well as the new idea governing urban development in the Americas provided the model for the missions. The mission cascos developed
around the public space of the plaza, a feature found in mot Spanish American towns of all sizes. The church was the largest and most dominant
structure in the town, and was consciously designed to impress upon the natives the magnificence and superiority of the new religion.
The mission complexes, either on the frontier of New Spain or in Paraguay, established the physical template for the new orderly societies being
created. They also contained elements of social change and social control. The missionaries imposed their own notions of monogamous marriage, and
assigned couples married under the rites of the new religion apartments suitable for a nuclear family. The mission cascos also included dormitories
for widows, single women, or the wives of fugitives designed to impose a new code of morality and at the same time to save male neophytes from the
corruption of naturally promiscuous women. Through the dormitories the missionaries insured that they would manipulate and control the marriage
process. Moreover, by keeping the wives of fugitives in the dormitories, the missionaries were able to use them as leverage over their husbands.
Missionaries also took young children away from the parents and housed them in dormitories to educate them, protect them from the corrupting influence
of their native culture, and to use them as leverage over their parents.
Urban life defined civilization in Iberian society, and the Spanish encountered uncivilized jungle and desert on the fringes of the New World Empire.
The missionaries paved the way for the creation of civilization by reducing non-town dwelling peoples to sedentary life. They also furthered the
civilizing goal by creating communities in the wilderness that brought order to a savage landscape.
Table 3.1: Building Construction Reported at Santo Tomas Mission, 1794-1801
______________________________________________________________
1793: Church described as being of adobe with dimensions of 12 x 5 varas.
1794: Mission, originally established in 1791, was moved to a new site. An adobe chapel and residence for the missionaries were built.
1795: Seventy varas of foundation laid for new buildings.
1796: An adobe structure was built containing a reception room (sala), two bedrooms, another room, and a common area. A dispensary was built, as well
as dormitories for single men and single women. A weaving room with an adjoining corral was built.
1797: A corral for sheep and goats was built. 1,400 varas of foundation were laid for building projects.
1798: No building projects reported, because indigenous workers prepared new agricultural fields.
1799: Four adobe structures were built measuring 20, 14, 7, and 6 varas in length respectively. Foundations were laid for a new church.
1800: Work continued on the church. A corridor, weaving room, and granary were built.
1801: The adobe church begun in 1799 was completed. It measured 30 x 6 varas. Two store rooms, each measuring 10 x 8 varas were built, as well as a
new dormitory for single women and girls measuring 9 x 6 varas.
______________________________________________________________
Source: Annual Reports, Archivo General de la Nacion, Misiones 2, and Provincias Internas 19. Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., Missions and Missionaries
of California: Lower California, 2nd edition (Mission Santa Barbara, 1929), 625-626.
Table 3.2: Building Construction at La Purisima Mission, 1788-1812
Year Building Dimensions
1789 Church 60.5? x 16.5?
Sacristy 13.8? x 16.5?
Granary 88? x 16.5?
Kitchen 13.8? x 16.5?
1790 Seven rooms 132? x 16.5?
1791 Granary 85.3? x 16.5?
Three buildings outside of complex
Not given
1792 Church enlarged 88? x 16.5?
1793 Wing 173.3? x 16.5?
1794 Soldiers? barracks 38.5? x 16.5?
Storeroom Not given
Guests? quarters 22? x 16.5?
Overseer?s quarters 33? x 16.5?
Carpenter shop 22? x 16.5?
Tack room Not given
1795 Granary 85.5? x 19.3?
Office 33? x 19.3?
1796 Three storerooms Not given
1797 New residence for the missionaries Not given
1798 New soldiers? barracks Not given
1798-1802 New church Not given
1799 Room 27.5? x 19.3?
Room 27.5? x 19.3?
1800 Wing 192.5? x 19.3?
1804 New soldiers? barracks 110? x 19.3??
Source: Annual Reports, Archivo General de la Nacion, Mexico, D.F.; Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., Mission La Concepcion Purisima de Maria Santisima
(Santa Barbara, 1932).
Notes
James Ivey, In The Midst of Loneliness: The Architectural History of the Salinas Missions (Santa Fe, 1988), 55-200; Joseph Toulouse, The Mission of
San Gregorio de Abo: A Report on the Excavation and Repair of a Seventeenth-Century New Mexico Mission (Albuquerque, 1949).
Alden Hayes, The Four Churches of Pecos (Albuquerque, 1974), 19.
John Kessell, Kiva, Cross, and Crown (Washington, D.C., 1979), 124-125.
Hayes, Four Churches, 23-24.
Arno Alvarez Kern, ?Analise do plano urbanno das missoes Jesuitico-Guaranis: Um estudo comparativo com os Mosteiros Medievais,? Jornadas
Internacionais sobre as missoes Jesuiticas: As missoes jesuiticas del Guaira (Parana, 1998), 127-150.
Harry Crosby, Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsula frontier, 1697-1767 (Albuquerque, 1994), 269-271.
Ibid., 272-273.
1795 Annual Report, Archivo General de la Nacion, Mexico, D.F. (hereinafter cited as AGN), Misiones 2.
Robert H. Jackson, Indian Population Decline: The Missions of Northwestern New Spain, 1687-1840 (Albuquerque, 1994).
Crosby, Antigua California, 241-242.
Translated in Ernest Burrus, S.J., Jesuit Relations-Baja California (Los Angeles, 1984), 140.
Jackson, Indian Population Decline, 169.
Ibid., 260-261; Utrera, ?Nuevo estado.?
Quoted in Zephyrin ENgelhardt, O.F.M., Missions and Missionaries of California: Lower California (Mission Santa Barbara, 1929), 474.
Christoval de Vera, O.F.M., ?Entrega de esta Mission de San Joseph Comondu,? AGN, Misiones 12.
Comondu Mission Annual Report, 1796, AGN Misiones 2.
Engelhardt, Missions and Missionaries, 598.
Marco Diaz, Arquitectura en el desierto: misiones jesuitas en Baja California (Mexico, D.F., 1986), 119.
Marco, Misiones, 92-93.
Utrera, ?Nuevo estado.?
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Quoted in Burrus, Jesuit Relations, 224.
Miguel del Barco, S.J., Historia Natural Y Cronica de la Antigua California, Miguel Leon-Portilla, ed. (Mexico, D.F., 1973), 261.
Utrera, S.J., ?Nuevo estado.?
Ibid., 477-478.
Ibid., 478.
The Guadalupe inventory is found in AGN-PI, 166.
Engelhardt, Missions and Missionaries, 595.
Utrera, S.J., ?Nuevo estado.?
Engelhardt, Missions and Missionaries, 482.
The 1773 San Ignacio inventory is found in AGN, Misiones 12.
Engelhardt, Missions and Missionaries, 596.
Ibid., 596; 1796 Annual report, AGN Misiones 2.
Quoted in Engelhardt, Missions and Missionaries, 484.
Translated in Finbar Kenneally, O.F.M., trans. And ed., Writings of Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, 2 volumes (Washington, D.C., 1965), 1: 17-20.
1773 Inventory, Archivo General de la Nacion, Mexico, D.F., Misiones 12.
San Diego mission annual report, ?Documentos Para la Historia de Mexico,? Archivo General de la Nacion, Mexico, D.F.
Engelhardt, Missions and Missionaries, 596.
Jose Luis Aguilar Marco, et. al., Misiones en la peninsula de Baja California (Mexico, D.F., 1991).
Peveril Meigs, The Dominican Mission Frontier of Lower California (Berkeley, 1935), 49, 74; Appendix 7.
William Robinson, ?Mission Guevavi: Excavations in the Convento,? The Kiva 42:2 (Winter, 1976), 135-175.
Buford Pickens, ed., , The Missions of Northern Sonora: A 1935 Field Documentation (Tucson, 1993), 108.
Ibid., 42-62.
Quoted in Kathleen Gilmore, Mission Rosario: Archaeological Investigation, 2 volumes (Austin, 1974), 1:18.
Peter Forrestal, trans. and ed., ?The Solis Diary of 1767,? Preliminary Studies of the Texas Catholic Historical Society 1:6 (1931), 1-42.
Quoted in Gilmore, Mission Rosario, 2:8.
Quoted in Ibid., 2:9.
Ibid., 2:9-10.
Ibid., 2:11.
Ibid., 2:11.
Ibid., 2:33-34.
Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., Mission La Concepcion Purisima de Maria Santisima. reprint edition. (Santa Barbara, 1986).
Mariano Payeras, O.F.M. to Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, La Purisima, March 11, 1813, in Donald Cutter, trans. & ed., Writings of Mariano Payeras
(Santa Barbara, 1995), 69 (hereinafter cited as WMP).
Ibid., 69.
Julia Costello, ?Mission Vieja de la Purisima CA-SBA-521H: Report on the 1991-1992 Archaeological Investigations,? unpublished report on file
with the City of Lompoc Community Development Department, 1993, 16.
Ibid., 29.
Jackson, Indian Population Decline, 173.
Two short studies publish most of these historical photographs. The Spring 1975 (21:1) issue of Noticias, the publication of the Santa Barbara
Historical Society, contains a series of article relating the history of the first site of La Purisima mission, as well as eight historical
photographs.
Ibid., 12.
Norman Neuerburg, The Architecture of Mission La Purisima. (Santa Barbara. 1987), 10.
Costello, ?Mission Vieja de la Purisima.?
Robert H. Jackson and Edward Castillo, Indians, Franciscans and Spanish Colonization: The Impact of the Mission System on California Indians
(Albuquerque, 1995), 137-168.
Mariano Payeras, O.F.M. to Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, La Purisima, March 11, 1813, in WMP, 13.
Ibid.
Quoted in Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., Mission La Concepcion Purisima (Mission Santa Barbara, 1932), 14.
Quoted in Ibid., 14.
Quoted in Ibid., 14.
Neuerburg, Mission La Purisima, 10.
In WMP, 51.
In ibid., 64.
Mariano Payeras, O.F.M. to Jose Joaquin de Arrillage, La Purisima, March 11, 1813, in WMP, 66.
In WMP, 72.
Neuerburg, Mission La Purisima,14.
In WMP, 80.
In Ibid., 118.
In Ibid., 169.
James Deetz, ?Final Summary Report of Investigations at La Purisima Mission State Historical Monument,? unpublished report filed with the State of
California Department of Natural Resources, Division of Beaches and Parks, 1963, 25.
On the relocation of Florida missions see John Hann, ?Summary Guide To Spanish Florida Missions and Visitas With Churches in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries,? The Americas 46:4 (April, 1990), 1-95.
Calvin Jones, John Hann, and John Scarry, ?San Pedro y San Pablo de Patale: A Seventeenth-Century Spanish Mission In Leon Country, Florida, ?
Florida Archaeology #5, 1991; Bonnie McEwan, The Spanish Missions of La Florida (Gainesville, 1993).
Ernesto Maeder, ?La poblacion de las misiones de Guaranies (1641-1682). Reubicacion de los pueblos y consecuencias demograficas,? Estudos
Ibero-Americanos 15:1 (1988), 49-68.
Ibid., 56.
Ibid., 56.
101 Alfredo Poenitz, La Herencia Misionera, Internet site, url: www.herenciamisionero.com.ar/, chapter 15. The document read, in part: ??componer las casas de los indios, y en hacer otras casas nuevas para que
todo el pueblo pueda vivir en casas de tejas, con esto se librar? del riesgo de quemarse las casas de paja, que muchos usan. Los pilares de las casas,
que se hicieren ser?n de piedra como est? la que ahora se acaba de hacer...?
Ibid., chapter 14. The inventory reads: Tiene este pueblo al presente setenta y cuatro hileras de casas, y todas estan techadas con tejas. Las
veinte y dos hileras de ellas de pared de piedra, y cinco de ellas son con horcones de piedra tambien con dos capillas. Otras cuatro hileras tienen
pared de tierra y pison y otras cuarenta y ocho son de tapia francesa??
. Memorial para el pueblo de Nuestra Se?ora de Fe, a?o 1714 in Ibid., chap 15. The quote reads: Porque este pueblo esta mal formado, o plantado no
tienen ya por donde extenderse bien, si no es a lo large de suerte que retiran mucho de la iglesia, y casa del Padre las casas que de nuebo es
necesario fabricar, de donde ha de haber mucha incomodidad para asistir con los ministerios prontamente, como se debe a los enfermos y demas gente que
hubiere vivir en lo retirado, y ademas de eso ocupa lo major de la loma, que debiera ocupar el pueblo o casas de indios, la casa de nuestra vivienda.
Ibid., chap. 15. Sepp?s quote reads: ?No aprend?, por cierto, con ning?n arquitecto c?mo hay que trazar un pueblo. Pero he viajado por tantos pa?ses
y provincias que me di cuenta de c?mo muchas aldeas, ciudades y villas europeas han sido construidas casi sin orden por sus fundadores y c?mo sus
sucesores las han ampliado sin sistema (...) Yo quer?a evitar ?stos y otros errores y trazar mi pueblo met?dicamente, seg?n las reglas del urbanismo.
La primera condici?n con la cual deb?a cumplir fue la medici?n y el amojonamiento de los terrenos para la construcci?n de las casas con el cordel del
agrimensor (...) En el centro tuve que alinear la plaza, dominada por la iglesia y la casa del p?rroco. De aqu? deb?an salir todas las calles, siempre
equidistantes una de la otra. Una buena distribuci?n en este sentido significaba una ventaja extraordinaria y, al mismo tiempo, el mejor adorno para
el pueblo. El cura puede, as?, viaticar a sus parroquianos de la manera m?s r?pida y c?moda (...) La plaza era de cuatrocientos pies de ancho y
quinientos pies de largo. A ambos lados de la iglesia se elevan, como en un anfiteatro, las casas de los indios, formando filas bien ajustadas (...)
De la plaza salen las cuatro calles principales, construidas en forma de cruz, que miden a lo ancho sesenta metros y a lo largo m?s de mil, y llevan
al campo en todas direcciones...?
Olga Martinez Valebona, ?La estructura de las reducciones guaranties,? internet file: http://cervantesvirtual.com/bib_tematica/jesuitas/misiones/a...
Arturo Barcelos, Espaco e Arquelogia nas Missoes Jesuiticas: O Caso de Sao Joao Batista (Porto Alegre, 2000), 178.
Ibid., 178-180.
Gobierno de la Provincia de Misiones, ?Reducci?n Jesu?tica de San Ignacio Mini,? Internet file: http://www.misiones.gov.ar/historia/PatrimonioJesuitico.htm#... The description reads: una iglesia de tres naves, con media naranja en todo
cumplida, toda pintada y a trechos dorada, con su p?lpito dorado, con cuatro confesionarios, los dos con adornos de escultura y los otros dos de obra
com?n. Su altar mayor con su retablo grande dorado".(Retablo:adorno de piedra o madera esculpida en que se apoya un altar). Al lado derecho de dicha
Iglesia tres altares: el primero de Resurrecci?n del Se?or, con su retablo dorado; el segundo de San Jos?, con retablo menor, medio dorado; y el
tercero del mismo Santo, sin retablo. La capilla del Baptisterio con su altar y retablo medio dorado, y pila bautismal, uno de piedra y la otra de
esta?o. La sacrist?a y contrasacrist?a, y en ellas y en la iglesia y retablos las estatuas, cuadros, l?minas, ornamnetos, plata labrada y dem?s
adornos y utensilios del servicio de la iglesia?
Gobierno de la Provincia de Misiones, ?Reducci?n Jesu?tica de Santa Ana,? Internet file: http://www.misiones.gov.ar/historia/PatrimonioJesuitico.htm#... The inventory reads: Church "de tres naves, media naranja y perfectamente
acabado". Ten?a "un p?lpito dorado y cuatro confesionarios de talla, dorados y pintados, un ?rgano grande y siete esca?os de asiento para el cabildo.
Cinco altares con sus buenos y dorados retablos; el altar mayor, con cuatro estatuas grandes, cuatro peque?as alrededor del sagrario?Un baptisterio
todo pintado, con su retablo dorado y su pila bautismal de lindo vidriado...... Una torre de madera con dos campanas grandes, dos medianas y dos
chicas.....Una sacrist?a hermosa, perfectamente acabada y dorada..... su aguamanil de esta?o para lavarse las manos el sacerdote que ha de
celebrar....veinte estatuas de varios misterios de Resurrecci?n, Pasi?n y de otras festividades de la Iglesia, que est?n guardadas en la
contrasacrist?a". Cloister: ?perfectamente acabada, con sus dos patios, huerta, cerca de piedra, refactorio, cocina y ocho aposentos de los que sirven
para los religiosos, uno de los mayordomos, otro de la m?sica, otro chico que serv?a para el indio portero; uno de los vestidos de cabildo y
danzantes, cuatro almacenes, en el patio segundo dos aposentos; el uno de plater?a y el otro de herrer?a, dos piezas largas de los telares, un
aposento de la panader?a y otro de beneficiar miel, otro vac?o para lo que se pueda ofrecer". Cotyguaz?: "Junto al Cementerio, con cimientos de piedra
y tres cuarta vara fuera de ellos tambi?n de piedra, lo restante de adobes, con un patio claustral con puerta en com?n 'las viudas, casadas cuyos
maridos anden hu?dos y las de m?s y portero en la puerta, que controlaba accesos y salidas' alrededor del cual se sit?an las habitaciones". Cemetery:
"Dividido en cuatro partes: los hombres eran enterrados aparte de las mujeres y los ni?os separados de las ni?as. Cada una de aquellas partes eran
iguales entre s?, se subdivid?an en ciertas parcelas con capacidad cada una para diez o doce cad?veres. Calles directas daban acceso al Norte, al Sur
y a los costados, a las que daban sombra plantaciones de naranjos. Hab?a tambi?n constru?da una capilla, en cuya parte superior estaba la cruz. Hab?a
dos puertas, una adherida a la pared del templo, otra a la Plaza". Orchard: "Situada detras de la Iglesia, Colegio y Talleres, estaba plantada de
naranjos, guayabas, bananas, palmeras, toda especie de legumbres y plantas medicinales. Con tres estanques a distintos niveles, el agua pasaba de uno
al otro por conductos subterr?neos. El piso de uno de los estanques est? empedrado y sus costados realizados de piedras calzadas, los muros no son
rectos, tienen una ligera curvatura para absorver el peso del agua".
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64854
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Dr. Jackson.... WOW!!!
Thank you for sharing so much of your new book. It really helps make clear the phases of construction by the three orders that operated in Baja. Even
though the Jesuits founded the missions at San Ignacio, Santa Gertrudis, and San Borja... it was the Dominicans that built the stone chuches at those
sites. Also at Jesuit founded San Borja (and Santa Maria), the large adobe ruins were built by the Franciscans.
I very much wanted to visit San Regis, the large visita of San Borja. A locked gate, several miles from San Regis ended that hope. last July. I did go
to the San Borja visitas of Santa Ana and San Ignacio (San Ignacito): http://davidksbaja.com/703
Looking forward to seeing you next book published!
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