Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa ( es, Misión San Luis Obispo de Tolosa) is a Spanish mission founded September 1, 1772 by Father

Junípero Serra Junípero Serra y Ferrer (; ; ca, Juníper Serra i Ferrer; November 24, 1713August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Order. He is credited with establishing the Franciscan Missions in the Sierr ...

in San Luis Obispo, California. Named after Saint Louis of Anjou, the

bishop of Toulouse The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toulouse (–Saint Bertrand de Comminges–Rieux) ( la, Archidioecesis Tolosana (–Convenarum–Rivensis); French: ''Archidiocèse de Toulouse (–Saint-Bertrand de Comminges–Rieux-Volvestre)''; Occitan: ''A ...

, the mission is the namesake of San Luis Obispo. The mission offers public tours of the church and grounds. The Mission of San Luis Obispo is unusual in its design, in that its combination of belfry and vestibule are found nowhere else among the California missions. Like other churches, the main

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

is short and narrow, but at the San Luis Obispo Mission, there is a secondary nave of almost equal size situated to the right of the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

, making it the only L-shaped mission church in California.

History

In 1769,

Gaspar de Portola Gaspar is a given and/or surname of French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish origin, cognate to Casper (given name) or Casper (surname). It is a name of biblical origin, per Saint Gaspar, one of the wise men mentioned in the Bible. Notable peopl ...

traveled through California on his way to the Bay of Monterey and discovered the San Luis Obispo area. Expedition diarist and

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

missionary

Juan Crespí Joan Crespí or Juan Crespí (1 March 1721 – 1 January 1782) was a Franciscan missionary and explorer of Las Californias. Biography A native of Majorca, Crespí entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. He came to New Spain ...

wrote that the soldiers called the place "llano de los osos," or the "plain of the bears." Since then, mistranslations of Crespi's diary have called this area "la cañada de los osos" (the canyon of the bears) which has been further mistranslated as the "valley of the bears." Portola followed the same route the following year, on his way to establish the

Presidio of Monterey The Presidio of Monterey (POM), located in Monterey, California, is an active US Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era. Currently, it is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLI-FLC). ...

. Missionary president

, traveling by sea, met the Portola party there and founded San Carlos Borremeo, in Monterey, which was moved to Carmel the following year. When food supplies started to dwindle at the mission, Serra remembered the stories of the "valley of the bears." He decided to send a hunting expedition to San Luis Obispo to help feed the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and neophytes (natives that converted to Christianity) in Monterey. The huge success of the hunting expedition caused Junípero Serra to consider building a mission in that area. Upon further investigation, he was convinced that

San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly hal ...

would be a perfect site for a mission, based on its surplus of natural resources, good weather and the

Chumash Chumash may refer to: *Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism *Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California *Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California See also *Chumash traditional n ...

, a local Native American tribe who could be used as labor, often by means of enslavement. The mission became the fifth in the mission chain founded by Father Junípero Serra. Serra himself was known for intimidating and controlling native subjects, and once "baptized" the Chumash were not allowed to leave the missions, nor were the generations to follow. Father Serra sent an expedition down south to

to start building the mission, and on September 1, 1772, a cross was erected near

San Luis Obispo Creek San Luis Obispo Creek is a stream, about long, in San Luis Obispo County, California. It drains a large coastal watershed that includes the city of San Luis Obispo, emptying into the Pacific Ocean at Avila Beach. Geography San Luis Obispo Creek ...

and Serra celebrated the first mass. However, following the first mass, Father Junípero Serra left the responsibility of construction to Father Jose Cavaller. Father Cavaller, five soldiers and two neophytes began building what is now Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. Father Cavaller used Chumash labor in building the palisades, which would serve as temporary buildings for the mission. However, Native American tribes set these buildings ablaze in an act of resistance against European colonization. The buildings were thus rebuilt using adobe and tile structures. Beginning in 1794 Mission San Luis Obispo went through extensive building operations. Buildings to accommodate the nearby Native Americans and many improvements to the mission, including storerooms, residences for single women, soldiers barracks and mills were added. The renovation was finally finished after completion of the quadrangle in 1819, and celebrated a year later by the arrival of two mission bells from Lima, Peru. The arrival of the bells marked the end of improvements made to Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa for many years. In 1830 Father Luis Gil y Taboada took over the mission, but he died three years later. Then in 1842, the death of Father Ramon Abella marked the last

at the mission.

Rancho period (1834-1849)

In 1845, Governor Pío Pico sold the San Luis Obispo Mission to Captain John Wilson for $510. John C. Frémont and his "California Battalion" used the mission as a base of operations during their war with

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in 1846 (see Bear Flag Revolt). The mission fell to ruins during the period of

secularization In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

and the priests who were left would rent out rooms to help support the mission.

California statehood (1850 - present)

The Mission San Luís Obispo de Tolosa became the first courthouse and jail in San Luis Obispo County, California. In 1850, when California became a part of the United States, the first California bishop, Joseph Alemany, petitioned the Government to return some of the mission lands back to the Church. Since then, it has undergone major civic, political and structural changes. In the 1880s, the front portico and bell loft were removed when weakened by an earthquake. An attempt was made to "modernize" the structures, and the

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

s along the front of the convento wing were razed and the Church and residence were covered with wooden clapboard. A New England-style belfry was added. The changes protected the structure from further decay, although significantly altering the facade of the buildings. In the 1930s, during the pastorship of Fr. John Harnett, the buildings underwent extensive restoration to transform them back to early mission style. The 1893 annex was extended in 1948. The mission is still the center of the busy downtown area, and functions as a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

church for the City of San Luis Obispo in the

Diocese of Monterey ''This article describes the present Diocese of Monterey in California. The entity previously known as the Diocese of Monterey from 1849 until 1859, and subsequently known as the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles from 1859 until 1922, is the presen ...

. In 1970 the Mission was recognized as the center of the City of

, with the dedication of Mission Plaza. Mayor Ken Schwartz worked with students from Cal Poly to develop a plan to convince voters to close Monterey Street in front of the mission. Construction of a plaza began in 1969 and the plaza was dedicated in 1970. A statue of

was installed on the grounds facing the public Mission Plaza. The attention to the statues of Junípero Serra expanded during the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...

to include monuments of individuals associated with the controversy over the

genocide of indigenous peoples The genocide of indigenous peoples, colonial genocide, or settler genocide is elimination of entire communities of indigenous peoples as part of colonialism. Genocide of the native population is especially likely in cases of settler colonialis ...

in the Americas. The statue was moved into storage on the grounds in 2020.

Spanish origin

In 1602, the Spanish began to show interest in California and sent

Sebastián Vizcaíno Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624) was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Asia. Early career Vizcaíno was born in 154 ...

, a pearl fisher, to explore the area. Vizcaino traveled the coast naming many of the cities that are important to the California coast today such as

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

, Santa Barbara and Monterey. Spain finally chose to create Vizcaino's suggested chain of missions when it was proven that California was indeed part of the continent. The goal of creating the chain was given to the Franciscan Order. While Spain had economic motives for establishing a stronghold in California, the

order of the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Church also had religious motives. With these factors in mind the missions were created in order to control the coast so that the ships from Spain would remain safe as well as bring the

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

to the Catholic faith. Re-education became the method for reaching Spain's religious and economic goals as they strived to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism as well as make them loyal Spanish subjects.

References

External links

Mission San Luis Obispo
- official site
Listing, drawings, and historic photographs
-- ''at the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

--HABS,'' Library of Congress.
Early photographs, sketches, land surveys of Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa
via Calisphere, California Digital Library. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mission San Luis Obispo De Tolosa San Luis Obispo de Tolosa Buildings and structures in San Luis Obispo, California 1772 in Alta California Churches in San Luis Obispo County, California Museums in San Luis Obispo County, California 1772 establishments in Alta California Religious organizations established in 1772 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1819 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey in California California Historical Landmarks History of San Luis Obispo County, California Religious museums in California Junípero Serra