The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a fully functioning Roman Catholic mission and a historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. Site of the first hospital in Alta California, the settlement was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary" September 8, 1771 as the fourth of what would become 21 Spanish missions in California. San Gabriel Arcángel, often referred to as the "Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angel...
more
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a fully functioning Roman Catholic mission and a historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. Site of the first hospital in Alta California, the settlement was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary" September 8, 1771 as the fourth of what would become 21 Spanish missions in California. San Gabriel Arcángel, often referred to as the "Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles", was designed by Father Antonio Cruzado who hailed from Córdoba, Spain. Cruzado gave the building its strong Moorish architectural influence. The capped buttresses and the tall, narrow windows are unique among the missions of the California chain.
The mission was founded on September 8, 1771. The planned site for the Mission was along the banks of the Río de los Temblores (the River of the Earthquakes—the Santa Ana River). However, the priests chose an alternate site on a fertile plain located directly alongside the Rio Hondo in the...
less
