San Javier Mission, Baja Peninsula
Today, we combined human history with natural history. First thing this morning, we landed at the picturesque town of Loreto, the first European settlement in the Californias. It was founded more than 300 years ago and was the regional capital until its destruction in 1829 by a massive hurricane. The capital was then moved to La Paz, but Loreto has had resurgence recently and now boasts a population of about 10,000 people. However, for us Loreto was but a landing point to give us access to something quite extraordinary. Our real quest today was the historic Mission San Francisco Xavier de Vigge-Biaundo, otherwise known as the San Javier Mission. It is located at the picturesque village of San Javier, which is only about 25-30 miles inland from the Sea of Cortez on the Baja Peninsula, but getting there was half the fun. We traveled nearly two hours on the old Camino Real, or Royal Road, which is a very, very scenic unpaved road that has been used for centuries by Spanish missionaries, military expeditions, and explorers.
San Javier Mission was founded in 1699 by the Italian Jesuit Francisco Piccolo, but the original wooden church was replaced about 50 years later with the present very impressive stone edifice (see the accompanying photo). It is considered the best-preserved Jesuit mission church in all of Baja. The mission is still active and as luck would have it, today was the 306th anniversary of its founding on May 11, 1699!
The Catholic Spaniards had a difficult time in the New World initially because there was no native wheat with which to bake bread to consecrate as the Host, nor were there suitable grapes to produce wine for Communion, nor were there any olive trees to provide oil for Annointing. Therefore, all these agricultural products had to be established as soon as possible. This mission is the site of the first cultivated olives, wine grapes, wheat, and citrus fruit orchards in California, and descendants from these plants (other than wheat) are still grown throughout the region. The results of the first Spaniards’ hard work in building dams and cisterns to provide irrigation for the extensive cultivation at the mission is very impressive. San Javier Mission still produces many different types of fruits and vegetables, but today is most famous for its delicious onions.
A later visit to Cuevas Pintas to view some ancient pictographs reminded us that native people known as Guaycura Indians inhabited the region long before the Spaniards arrived. Unfortunately, these hunting and gathering people died out very quickly as a result of introduced European diseases from which they had no immunities. Influenza, small pox, and measles proved to be the biggest killers, but tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid fever, and cholera also added to their misery. By the time the missionaries got established here at the end of the 17th century, sadly, there were no more Guaycura Indians left to proselytize.
Today, we combined human history with natural history. First thing this morning, we landed at the picturesque town of Loreto, the first European settlement in the Californias. It was founded more than 300 years ago and was the regional capital until its destruction in 1829 by a massive hurricane. The capital was then moved to La Paz, but Loreto has had resurgence recently and now boasts a population of about 10,000 people. However, for us Loreto was but a landing point to give us access to something quite extraordinary. Our real quest today was the historic Mission San Francisco Xavier de Vigge-Biaundo, otherwise known as the San Javier Mission. It is located at the picturesque village of San Javier, which is only about 25-30 miles inland from the Sea of Cortez on the Baja Peninsula, but getting there was half the fun. We traveled nearly two hours on the old Camino Real, or Royal Road, which is a very, very scenic unpaved road that has been used for centuries by Spanish missionaries, military expeditions, and explorers.
San Javier Mission was founded in 1699 by the Italian Jesuit Francisco Piccolo, but the original wooden church was replaced about 50 years later with the present very impressive stone edifice (see the accompanying photo). It is considered the best-preserved Jesuit mission church in all of Baja. The mission is still active and as luck would have it, today was the 306th anniversary of its founding on May 11, 1699!
The Catholic Spaniards had a difficult time in the New World initially because there was no native wheat with which to bake bread to consecrate as the Host, nor were there suitable grapes to produce wine for Communion, nor were there any olive trees to provide oil for Annointing. Therefore, all these agricultural products had to be established as soon as possible. This mission is the site of the first cultivated olives, wine grapes, wheat, and citrus fruit orchards in California, and descendants from these plants (other than wheat) are still grown throughout the region. The results of the first Spaniards’ hard work in building dams and cisterns to provide irrigation for the extensive cultivation at the mission is very impressive. San Javier Mission still produces many different types of fruits and vegetables, but today is most famous for its delicious onions.
A later visit to Cuevas Pintas to view some ancient pictographs reminded us that native people known as Guaycura Indians inhabited the region long before the Spaniards arrived. Unfortunately, these hunting and gathering people died out very quickly as a result of introduced European diseases from which they had no immunities. Influenza, small pox, and measles proved to be the biggest killers, but tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid fever, and cholera also added to their misery. By the time the missionaries got established here at the end of the 17th century, sadly, there were no more Guaycura Indians left to proselytize.
