Blog

The National Register Information System (NRIS) is a database of places listed in or determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. To see the NRIS list of structures located in San Juan Bautista, click on the link above, enter CA (in the State field) and San Juan Bautista (in the City field), then click the Execute button.

Founded in 1797 by Father Fermin de Lausen, successor to Junipero Serra, mission San Juan Bautista is the 15th of the 21 California Missions. Host to thousands of tourists each year Old Mission San Juan is an active Catholic Parish.

Your first day trip out of the park must be to see historic San Juan Bautista. Here you will find the oldest continuous in service Spanish Mission in California. While most other missions were closed and taken over by the state, Mission San Juan has remained an active Church with regularly scheduled services. The buildings surrounding the mission are part of the state run park that documents and preserves the historic significance of this community. Visit the many antique stores and restaurants in town.

Mission San Juan Bautista was founded on June 24, 1797 in what is now the San Juan Bautista Historic District of San Juan Bautista, California. Barracks for the soldiers, a nunnery, the Jose Castro House, and other buildings were constructed around a large grassy plaza in front of the church and can be seen today in their original form. The Ohlone, the original residents of the valley, were brought to live at the mission and baptized, followed by Yokuts from the Central Valley. Mission San Juan Bautista has served mass daily since 1797.

Mission San Juan Bautista is the largest of the Spanish missions in California. The mission was used in the 1958 Hitchcock film Vertigo, but the bell-wall was treated as a “bell tower” staircase, actually constructed on a studio lot.