The Beauty from History (Part last)

And now, some beauty we saw along the way...

💜

History History! (Part 2)

When the swallows come back to Capistrano.

(Have you heard that song?)

Oh the swallows!  Here is a little "history" of these soaring birds.

The swallows migrate to San Juan Capistrano every year in March.  John O' Sullivan (who came to the Mission in 1910, and was the first priest in 24 years.  That guy.) wrote this story about the swallows in his book Capistrano Nights: Tales of a Mission Town:

“I was passing the new hotel at the west side of the town plaza, and there was the proprietor out with a long pole smashing the swallows’ nest that were under the eaves. The poor birds were in a terrible panic, darting hither and thither flying and screaming about their demolished homes.

“What in the world are you doing,” I asked.

“Why,” said he, “these dirty birds are a nuisance, and I am getting rid of them.”

“But where can they go?” I continued.

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” He replied slashing away with his pole, “but they’ve no business here, destroying my property.”

“Then come on swallows,” I cried, “I’ll give you shelter. Come to the Mission, there is room enough there for all.”

“Sure enough they all took me at my word, and the very next morning they were busy building under the newly built sacristy of Father Serra’s church."   I found this at missionsjc.com.

When the Great Stone Church was stabilized, preservationists removed the swallow nests from it.  Many of the swallows left the Mission and stayed in the town instead.

Now, people are trying to coax the spirited birds back to the Mission, 

with recorded mating calls, and plaster nests (those are in the photo below.)

Come back little guys!!

The swallows do return to the town every year, and there is a big celebration with dancing, 

children in bight bird costumes, and songs.

A statue of Father Serra, who founded the Mission, and a young Indian boy.

We went into the Serra Chapel, which is in the Mission and still used today.  There are so many beautiful artifacts that had been in that same church hundreds of years ago.  We saw lots of paintings that had been so carefully excavated and restored.  It sounded like a lot of work.

What Ellie is looking at in the picture above, is the huge altar in the back of the church.  This giant masterpiece made of wood and overlaid with gold, is about 400 years old.  I think a conservation lady wanted to decorate the church with something historical, and a man who worked in the church let her look around in the attic.  There, she found the altar.  In hundreds of pieces, in tons of boxes.

         They removed a layer of paint someone had put on the altar so that it would be original.  Even though people said they should patch it up to make it look newer.  What would be the point of making a historical artifact look brand new??

On the audio tour, a man said he remembered sitting in the pews when he was younger, watching curious chickens stroll inside, and someone's peacock strut in and flap among the pews!  Now that would be a fun service!

Here are a couple cool clips from around the Mission.

I just loved these walkways.

Merchants would dump their trash when they came to the coast to trade.  

Probably a Capistrano local found this wood, and decided to make it a shelf.

But, what's with the circular grooves?  This shelf used to be a cannon ball rack on a ship!!

That is the original roofing!!

And now to finish part two, some thoughts on cooking.

This lovely oven is part of the kitchen where your food would be cooked if you lived in the Mission.

Outside in the baking heat.  While you were baking.  Ouch.

And if you were one of the cooks in 1801, you'd have to cook for 1,000 people!  But only three times a day.  Heh.  

(I'm guessing that these cooking people were pretty strong characters... or didn't have nerves...)

😅

Meeting The Mission (Part 1)

When we stepped out of the car at the mission at San Juan Capistrano, I knew my camera and I were going to have some work to do...  (This was the second adventure where I took my camera.)

This is the cute town of San Juan Capistrano:

The mission is right in the middle of the town, but it's hard to tell.  

Once you step inside... of course you are drawn right to the lovely koi pond.  ;)

We sat down on a shady bench, (it was HOT!) and listened to our audio tours.  We were looking at the oldest mission in California, possibly the oldest building left standing in California!  Those ruins are 200 years old.  Technically, George Washington could have visited this same place, if he hadn't been so busy at the time.  ;)  It was established in 1776!

One day, 200 years ago, the Spaniards and Native Americans were worshipping their Heavenly Father together in the beautiful stone church they had built, when an earthquake struck.  Clusters of rocks fell and killed 40 of the people inside.  

          A long time later, after Mexico had risen from breaking their bonds with Spain, after Santa Anna had taken over the missions, kicked everyone out of them, and made them into private property, after the Catholic church asked Abraham Lincoln to give them back the missions (which he did one month before he was assassinated), a priest named John O' Sullivan moved to the South West for his health.  He moved into a tent at the mission San Juan Capistrano, to restore it and minister to the locals.  He was the first priest staying in the mission since 1886 - the first in 24 years.

Years later, with more modern restorations, there we were:  

These are the same steps they walked on.  

(We weren't allowed to step on them, but aren't they pretty?)

As I touched these columns, I realized I could be placing my hand exactly 

where one of those Padres, or Native Americans could have.

It was awesome.

The builders stuck those in there!!

My tiny Mommy (Again)

 

      Our audio tour told us about how the mission's old bells had still recently been part of every day life in San Juan Capistrano.  Men and women's voices told their stories of how in the morning, the bells would ring.  They knew it was lunch time because the bells were ringing.  And the same time Papa came home from work, the bells were announcing evening time.

          One man said they also rang the bells when someone had died.  They knew if it had been a man, woman, or child by the pattern of the ring.  And even if the person had been 90 years old, they would ring those bells 90 times to tell how old that person was.

Memorial to Paul Abiso.  He was the bell ringer for 42 years.

More fascinating history from this place in the next post!