Mission Hills
Tourism

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San Gabriel mission stations. The largest of the buildings fell victim to the 1812 earthquake; only one monastery wing about 260ft/80m long remains standing. The symptoms of decline which followed secularization were rectified between 1879 and the 1930s, so that now not only the monastery but also the church, the bell-tower, and various workshops have been restored to their original condition. Eight years after secularization the mission had to endure a kind of gold-rush itself because some of the precious metal was discovered on one of its properties. This was still seven years before the actual gold-rush at the Sacramento River, but the finds were so unimportant that interest soon waned.

Places of interest

In the restored monastery made of adobe - one of the longest of its kind - can be found the workshops, where the handiwork of the time is documented. Here, too, pilgrims walking along the Camino Real could rest. Particularly beautiful, being stocked with exotic plants of all kinds, is the cemetery, where thousands of Shoshone Indians, as well as many Franciscans, are buried. This mission was the last of four to be built in twelve months; never before had so many new missions been established within a single year.

Location

15151 Mission Boulevard, San Fernando, at the junction of the Golden State (I-5) and San Diego Freeway (I-405), easy to reach from Pasadena and Downtown Los Angeles. You can also take bus no. 24 from 11th and Main Street in Los Angeles.