Mission San Juan Capistrano

The bronze says the stone church was destroyed in 1812. On December 8 that year, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, an earthquake brought the Great Stone Church down on the early Mass, and forty Acjachemen were killed, most of them women; the Franciscans noted that no European died. Acjachemen neophytes had built it between 1796 and 1806. The same bronze says the mission was founded to christianize and civilize the Indians, its word for the Acjachemen. Each December 8 the mission reads the dead's names aloud. The state plaque went into storage when the street was widened.

What the plaque says

San Juan Capistrano Mission Founded in 1776 by Padre Junipero Serra. The seventh in the chain of twenty-one missions established in Alta California to Christianize and civilize the Indians. Stone church destroyed in 1812 earthquake. Expropriated during Mexican rule. Returned to Catholic church in 1865 by proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln. Historical Landmark No. 200 California State Park Commission Mission San Juan Capistrano Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded in 1776 by Saint Serra. As the seventh of the 21 California missions, and the only mission in Orange County, it hosts the State's most historically significant chapel, Serra Chapel (1782) and the ruins of the Great Stone Church (1806-1812). The mission welcomes people from all over the world as a place of inspiration and education. Mass is celebrated daily. Historical Site No. 54 Orange County Board of Supervisors Orange County Historical Commission Placed 2017

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Puvungna — 33 mi
  The Acjachemen and Tongva place of creation: twenty-two acres of open ground on a university campus, still not in the hands of its people.

More markers nearby

• Dana Point — 3.7 mi
• La Cristianita — 7.2 mi
• The Serrano Adobe — 10 mi
• Barton Mound — 11 mi