Carmel Mission

Junipero Serra founded the mission on 3 June 1770 near the native village of Tamo, in Monterey. It was moved to the mouth of the Carmel River and re-established on 1 August 1771. Serra died on 28 August 1784 and was buried beneath the chapel floor at his own request. (Wikipedia)

Fermin Lasuen later replaced the adobe church with the stone church of today, which the article dates to 1797. In 1960 Pope John XXIII named the mission a minor basilica, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark that October. (Wikipedia)

Harry Downie began restoring the mission in 1931 and worked on it for about fifty years. It is described as the only California mission still holding its original bell and bell tower; the bell, nicknamed Ave Maria, was cast in Mexico City in 1807. (Wikipedia)

Four galleries tell the story: the Harry Downie Museum, the Munras Family Heritage Museum, the Jo Mora Chapel Gallery, with Jo Mora’s 1924 cenotaph for Serra, and the Convento Museum, which holds the cell where Serra lived and died. (Wikipedia) Plan a visit at carmelmission.org.