Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded in 1776 by Padre Junípero Serra, is the most evocative of the California missions. Unlike the heavily restored missions elsewhere on the chain, San Juan preserves genuine ruins — the Great Stone Church that collapsed in the 1812 earthquake still stands as roofless walls draped in bougainvillea, more beautiful for being broken than it ever was when intact.

The Serra Chapel, a small whitewashed room dating to 1782, is the oldest building still in religious use in California. The grounds include a series of reconstructed buildings arranged around a central courtyard garden, fountains, and the swallows' nesting sites in the ruins. The mission is famous for the cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) that migrate here from Argentina each year, arriving around St. Joseph's Day (19 March) and departing around 23 October. The sight of thousands of swallows wheeling over the ruins is one of the more remarkable urban wildlife spectacles in California.

Admission is charged. The mission is in the centre of town, a short walk from the Amtrak station.

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A story
The Great Stone Church, begun in 1797, was the grandest structure in California when it was completed in 1806. Six years later, a devastating earthquake on 8 December 1812 brought the tower crashing into the nave during morning Mass, killing 40 worshippers. The church was never rebuilt. Its ruined walls still stand, draped in bougainvillea, open to the sky — a more affecting monument than most intact churches.