santa ysabel mission

On Hwy. 79 a little west of the town, the mission grounds include the church, the small museum, gift shop, cemetery, orchard, and the floored of the first chapel. Visitors may walk the grounds. The peaceful setting is ideal for reflective thinking of a personal nature or on topics such as the theft of church bells. Several bird species may be found on the grounds.

This is a very small, simple and serene mission with a great museum on the same grounds. We were in love with the stain glass and the simplicity of how people used to live. There is a very interesting cemetery to visit and a gift shop. Great stop for a quick break.

Went hiking at the Santa Ysabel preserve and was told there was a mission nearby. I had to check it out. This is a small sub-mission. It's not one of the main missions along El Camino Real. It's very small and quaint, but very peaceful and serene. There's a small museum, a shrine to Mary outside and a gift shop (it wasn't open on the weekend when I visited). They do hold Catholic masses and was greeted by the priest when I went into the main church. The signature El Camino Real bell is also on site. I love seeing those!

This is one of the California missions? Really?!? I don't believe it; it looks nothing like the others and is not on El Camino Real. The Catholic Church operates some churches as "mission churches," which I think means they are not self-sustaining.....

Blink and you'll miss the sign leading to this tiny mission, which seems more like a normal church than an actual mission to me. But it's lovely, nonetheless, with some rather amazing artwork. Don't miss the little one-room "museum".

In our quest to visit all the missions, we spotted this one while traveling thru Santa Ysabel so made a quick stop on a Sunday. Services were just ending. The church has beautiful stained glass windows that the sun was streaming through. A small mission, but certainly a lovely one.

While the mission asistencia (Junior mission) is quite small with few historic outbuildings or displays, it really conjures up the look and setting of the missions in rural California in the early 19th century. A lovely spot on a beautiful drive if heading from the north to Julian. Also visit Pala mission asistencia further north which still has an active Indian school.

Santa Ysabel Mission is a working church, with Saturday evening services as well as Sunday services. This is a "mini" mission, built for this outlying area of San Diego, on the edge of the Santa Ysabel Reservation. It is stark and basic in design, both inside and out, and a careful visit to the cemetery will give you an overall idea of its patronage. Really an interesting place to attend church.

A small mission that still serves the community, it is rich in history. The main sanctuary features beautiful woodworking and stained glass windows marking the stations of the cross. There is a small museum on the property which details the long history of the church and the sad story of how the bells went missing.

The mission still serves mostly the Native American population on two adjoining Reservations and has a tiny bur informative museum attached. Browse the grave stones for some old names in the area, chat with the Padre if he is around, and take a picture of one of the best little missions in California, I think anyway..

Ancient musem, vey authentic We visited a while back but still remember it fondly. It was an excellent review of local history and a step back into mission times. The displays were life like and original . The church seems like a holy portal into simpler times.

I've been on a quest to visit everything in California related to the Missions. Asistencia Santa Ysabel (pronounced Isabel) was founded in 1818 as an outpost to Mission San Diego, the first Mission in California. It is not large and historic ruins are few, but this little church in the middle of no-where is usually very peaceful and historic. A small museum is located in a small room at the side of the church. Historic cemetery and open spaces are adjacent. I've visited many times, once I discovered a large funeral for a very popular local man. It's still important to the local community.

Wow, history abounds in this area. Originally founded in the early 1800's as an Assistencia to the Mission in San Diego. We missed being their when the Mission Museum and Gift Store were open. Next time. Educational and enjoyable to walk the grounds and visit the Cemetery.

Although it is believed that the first mass was celebrated in this place in 1818, a permanent church was not actually built until 1822 after a thriving community was established with “many houses, a cemetery, granary, vineyards, animal stock, and an orchard.”By 1846, the chapel and the mud houses had begun to disintegrate. Two bells, bought by the Indians for six burro loads of barley, hung in a frame as the only remains of the original chapel. The bells were among the oldest in California, dating from 1723 and 1767. As time went on, only outlines of the church remained. In 1903, Father Edmond LaPointe, a Canadian Missionary, came to Santa Ysabel and in 1924 erected the new church, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. Stop by and read the story of the bells. They have disappeared!

This is one of the missions (sub-mission, or asistencia) that is a lonely, if peaceful, stop on the highway to Julian or Anza-Borrego State Park. There is a lovely small chapel, a dusty graveyard and a tiny museum. The picture I posted here shows an old oval photograph taken of the graveyard at night, with luminarias glowing on the ground. In the time since we visited, I heard the museum was looted of artifacts, which isn't surprising since the place is so remote and we couldn't find a living human being on the premises - just birds, nearly tame rabbits and wind moaning in the trees. Most Indian exhibits, unless they are in larger museums or institutions, are sitting ducks for thieves.Here is a website with some more information:http://www.missiontour...Also, I "borrowed" from the Wikipedia entry so you could have more details at a glance:"The Santa Ysabel Asistencia was founded on September 20, 1818 at Cañada de Santa Ysabel in the mountains east of San Diego (near the village of Elcuanan), as a "sub-mission" to Mission San Diego de Alcalá, and to serve as a rest stop for those travelling between San Diego and Sonora. The native population of approximately 450 neophytes consisted of both Luiseño and Diegueño peoples. Based on historical records, Santa Ysabel enjoyed a higher-than-average conversion rate when compared to the other California missions. Given its remote location, the facility was visited infrequently by the padres after secularization of the missions in the 1830s."There's another asistencia further down the road worth checking out, San Antonio de Pala, that had an active congregation of mostly Native Americans.