:''Another mission bearing the name
San Fernando Rey de España is located in the
Mission Hills neighborhood of
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.''
Mission San Fernando Velicatá () was a
Spanish mission located about southeast of
El Rosario in
Baja California
Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...
, Mexico. The mission was founded in 1769 by
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...
missionary
Junípero Serra and was the only mission founded by Franciscan missionaries in what is now Baja California.
History
The site for the future mission was identified by the
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
missionary-explorer
Wenceslaus Linck in 1766. After the Jesuits were replaced by the Franciscans in 1768, the latter were charged with extending Spanish control far to the north, into
Alta California
Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva California () among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separat ...
. Mission San Fernando, at the
Cochimí settlement of Velicatá on the route north, was established by
Junípero Serra during the early stages of the
Portolá expedition, on May 14, 1769, the day of Pentecost. This would be Father Junipero Serra's first mission before moving north to Alta California.
In the 1770s, under the Franciscans and then after 1773 under their
Dominican successors, the mission quickly reached its peak and went into decline as epidemics decimated the native population. A missionary was no longer permanently resident at the site after about 1818.
Present day
A few ruined walls and stone foundations survive at the site as well as
petroglyphs
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
and some remains of
pictograms
A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...
. Just to the west of the mission ruins it is possible to find an aqueduct and a small dam.
See also
*
Spanish missions in Baja California
References
* Sauer, Carl O., and Peveril Meigs. 1927. "Site and Culture at San Fernando Velicatá". ''University of California Publications in Geography'' 2:271–302. Berkeley.
* Vernon, Edward W. 2002. ''Las Misiones Antiguas: The Spanish Missions of Baja California, 1683–1855''. Viejo Press, Santa Barbara, California.
* Meighan, Clement. ''Seven Rock Art Sites in Baja California'' Ballena Press, 1978.
* Aschmann, Homer. 1959. ''The Central Desert of Baja California: Demography and Ecology''. Manessier Press, San Diego, California.
* Writings of Junípero Serra. Edited by Antonine ... v.1. Serra, Junípero, Saint, 1713-1784 (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?q1=velicata;id=uc1.b3929749;view=plaintext;start=1;sz=10;page=root;size=100;seq=117;num=61)
External links
* http://www.questconnect.org/baja_california_missions.htm
* https://web.archive.org/web/20060125005937/http://www.bajacalifologia.org/english/history.htm
bajamissionsThe Spanish missions and visitas of Baja California.
San Fernando Rey de Espana
Landmarks in Ensenada
1769 establishments in New Spain
Junípero Serra
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