Mission San Luis Rey de Francia

Mission San Luis Rey de Francia

As a history lover, I have been learning about California's history.  In  the late 1700's the Spanish began settling  California by establishing missions.

The basic idea of the missions was to send a priest to claim the land and convert the native Indians to Christianity in an effort to protect the Spanish strategic interest to the Pacific Ocean from the Russians

The last surviving original bell

We went to see Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in Oceanside.
 This particular mission was founded in 1798. As we toured the mission we were surprised to learn that the Mormon Battalion had stopped and stayed at the mission for a few weeks in late 1846. While they were there they helped clean and repair things. There is a plaque to the Battalion at the Mission. This mission is known as the king of the missions because it is one of the largest.

Ruins

  There are 21 missions scattered through out California. San Diego county is the only county in California to have two missions.
The mission site features a museum, the old chapel, the new parish chapel, a cemetery, ruins, gardens and of course a gift shop.

It was fascinating to walk around the grounds. There are beautiful gardens, an ancient chapel (which we could not go into as it was being retrofitted) and many arches and ruins to see. For the nominal fee of $10 we were able to wander around to our heart's content and see all there was to see. I like self guided tours the best, you never miss anything and you are never board.

Oldest pepper tree in CA. Circa 1830

Garden courtyard