Santa Clara is part of the tasteful urban sprawl west of San Jose at the southern end of San Francisco Bay. The mission at Santa Clara, founded in 1777, was a moving target for much of its’ first 150 years. At times ravaged by floods and/or destroyed by earthquake and fire, the current site was established in 1822 but the chapel as we see it was originally built in 1929. There is little of the original mission in evidence as the mission grounds form the basis for the establishment of a Jesuit college, the private Catholic University of Santa Clara. The church built in 1929 now serves as the chapel for the university, which has grown up around it. A crew was setting up for some kind of musical performance when I visited so I couldn’t linger.
It is a beautiful campus, everyone’s fantasy picture of a California university. This view is from the front steps of the chapel.
As I head to the next mission, San Jose, I am again reminded of one of the reasons this has been such an interesting trip, which is the tremendous variety in the condition and use of the various missions. The Mission San Jose couldn’t be more different than the mission at Santa Clara.
First of all, Mission San Jose is not in San Jose, it is actually in the small town of Fremont about 20 miles northwest of San Jose in the hills west of the bay. I have never been in this area before and am surprised by all of the open space as the freeway winds it way through rolling hills (now surprisingly green due to recent rains). Fremont is a small town on a hillside overlooking the bay (in the distance to the west) and is really not much to see. There is a bedraggled remnant of a main street in front of the mission site surrounded by clusters of suburban subdivisions. The mission was founded in 1797, sited in an area that had productive agricultural conditions near a native American village. Again, the earthquakes that plagued the California area in the 1800’s raised havoc with the mission buildings and the church as it exists today is a reconstruction from the 1809 plan completed in 1985. This is a small site with the reconstructed church (next to original cemetery), a small plaza, and a building that remains from part of the original quadrangle serving as a museum, all in a line along the east side of the main street. I was particularly lucky (not!) in that today seems to have been the perfect 4th grade field trip day and the mission was crawling with 4th graders (and their noise). It was a quick visit. South of the church across a small plaza is the remaining adobe wing of the original mission quadrangle which is now a small museum (full of 4th graders today!).
Many of the furnishings of the church are relics from the early chapels. Note again that this was not an affluent mission, the wa’s.lls are covered with painted frescoes that mimic more expensive architectural details (all of the detail around the door is painted). To the north of the church is the cemetery with many ornate headstones from the 1800
Next up: Mission San Francisco
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