Mission San Juan Capistrano

Called the 'Jewel of the Missions,' Mission San Juan Capistrano is the most complete surviving example of California's Spanish mission chain, founded the same year as American independence. Its Serra Chapel is the oldest building in California still in use, and the soaring ruin of its Great Stone Church, felled by an earthquake in 1812, stands as a haunting monument to the ambition and fragility of the mission system. The mission's legendary swallows, said to return each spring, have made it one of the most beloved historic sites in the state.

Franciscan friar Junipero Serra founded Mission San Juan Capistrano on November 1, 1776, the seventh of what would become 21 California missions, established to convert local Acjachemen people to Catholicism and extend Spanish colonial control. The mission grew into a self-sufficient community with orchards, vineyards, and workshops, and its adobe Serra Chapel, built around 1782, survives as the oldest standing building in California.

Construction of a grand stone church, designed to be the finest in California, began in 1797 under master mason Isidro Aguilar and finished in 1806. It stood only six years: a devastating earthquake on December 8, 1812, collapsed the church during Sunday Mass, killing at least 40 worshippers. The ruins were never rebuilt and remain today, their walls still bearing traces of original decoration.

Mexican secularization of the missions in 1833 stripped the mission of its lands, and it fell into disrepair until restoration efforts began in the early 20th century. The mission became famous nationally for the cliff swallows that migrate to nest in its ruins each spring, celebrated in the popular song 'When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano.' Today it operates as a museum and an active Catholic parish, and is designated a National Historic Landmark.