The ruins of the Great Stone Church at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Photo / Supplied
The ruins of the Great Stone Church at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Photo / Supplied
Shandelle Battersby finds the jewel of the missions along California's King's Highway
Along parts of the Californian coastline from San Diego to Sonoma, you'll see bronze bells hanging from shepherd's crooks on the side of the road, a sign you're on El Camino Real, the King's Highway.
They represent the work of Spanish Franciscan priest Father Junipero Serra and his compatriots who settled 21 missions in the late 18th century to spread Christianity among the Native American people and "teach" them to become Spanish citizens.
The Spanish priests were acting on the instructions of their bosses, the royal family, who had big plans for colonisation and were worried about the Russians getting their mitts on the upper part of the region, then known as Alta California.
Bells played an important role in mission life — they were used to announce meal and work times, and during services, and became a symbol of the Californian Mission Trail.
We were following at least some of Father Serra's 966km path as part of The Californian, a coach tour with Trafalgar giving a taste of the best of the state from San Diego in the south to San Francisco in the north.
These days El Camino Real is no longer one single road, but you'll find much of it on parts of Highway 101.
The padre's first stop was San Diego in 1769, effectively making it the birthplace of California. From there he made his way slowly north, founding several more of the 21 settlements roughly 50km apart so there was somewhere for shelter and rest at the end of a long day travelling on horseback.
Father Jose Altimira settled the final mission, San Francisco Solano, at Sonoma in 1833, a year before the Mexican Government, which had won independence from Spain in 1821, closed the missions. President Abraham Lincoln returned them all to the Catholic Church in 1865.
The distinctive bells were placed along the route in 1906 in a bid to preserve its historic path, but many were vandalised or stolen. In 2005 the original bell moulds were used to replace them and they're now firmly concreted into place.
Father Junipero Serra. Photo / 123RF
One of the best maintained and preserved of the missions is at San Juan Capistrano, just over an hour north of San Diego or an hour and a half south of LA, known as the "jewel of the missions".
On our guided tour with docent Denny Carlisle we learned how the Spanish padres helped shape the Californian economy with their goal to make each settlement self-sufficient, though they never ended up completely succeeding.
Colonisation always has negative consequences and its effects on the Native Americans were no different, but they did pick up skills such as farming, growing crops and making adobe buildings.
The mission had its own blacksmith, tallow vats for making soap and candles, and a grape-stomping pit where the missionaries made wine.
We also heard how cow hides became a form of currency and how Two Years Before the Mast author Richard Henry Dana jnr, who visited the coast during the 1830s on a trading ship, wrote of the sailors throwing dried hides from the cliffs, one by one, down to the beach and watched as they "swayed and eddied about, plunging and rising in the air like a kite when it has broken its string".
In 1915 the mission made print for another reason when a magazine published a story about the American cliff swallows, which nest under the buildings' eaves in the springtime.
The return of the birds, which is celebrated by the town each March with the week-long Fiesta de las Golondrinas or Festival of the Swallows, inspired US composer Leon Rene to write the famous tune, When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano.
WE finished our tour at one of the places the famous birds build their nests - the ruins of the Great Stone Church.
Built in 1797, the roof of the church caved in and the bell tower collapsed during an earthquake in 1812, which killed 42 people, including two young bell-ringers.
This event, followed by the mission's disestablishment in 1834, saw it fall into disrepair until 1910 when Father John O'Sullivan started charging a nickel for entry and used the money to start doing it up.
Today its grounds are beautifully maintained and rich with citrus and olive trees, all types of cacti, roses, lavender and succulents, and it serves as a valuable educational resource.
If Father Serra could see the mission today, he'd be proud of what he helped create.
