Historical Marker · No. 105
Royal Presidio Chapel of San Carlos Borroméo
Monterey, Monterey County · California
Erected by U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1961
No state plaque stands here; the only bronze about the chapel is the 1961 National Historic Landmark tablet on a boulder below the cathedral's own sign. The soldiers' chapel before this one burned in 1789, in a fire blamed on a saluting gun. Its stone replacement was designed at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City and built by Native laborers under the master mason Manuel Ruiz, finished in the mid-1790s. Ruiz's carving of the Virgin of Guadalupe is still on the façade. Restoration uncovered the walls of a baptistery and sacristy added about 1810.
What the plaque says
Royal Presidio Chapel Has been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark Under the provisions of the Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1935 this site possesses exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of the United States U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service 1961
Where it stands
36.59580, -121.89044 · Directions
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