Oceanside - Mission San Luis Rey de Francia

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was the Indian village, on the other stood a military barracks which were found in every mission station. Below these buildings were a garden and a laundry.

After the usual neglect of the secularized buildings, a start was made in 1893 on restoring the mission, which had meanwhile become the property of the Catholic church. Today it serves as a seminary.

Items of interest

This, the largest and most beautiful mission station, possesses an interesting museum in the former monastery and in the workshops, where some paintings and wood sculptures from Mexico are well worth seeing. In the magnificent garden with its cloister is the first mastix tree (also known as the pepper tree, from Peru) to be planted in North America, as well as an Indian cemetery. The French visitor who had admired the Santa Barbara mission in 1840, considered that from an architectural point of view the mission of San Luis Rey de Francia was the most impressive and symmetrical in the whole of California.

Location

4050 Mission Avenue, Oceanside, from which place it is 5mi/8km away on the CA 76. From San Diego the distance is 33mi/53km.