Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad

(Located near Soledad, Monterey County, California)

The Soledad Mission and Grounds & Examples of Uses of Local Stone

My husband Pat and I visited Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad in late May 2012, and the photographs in this photographic tour are from that visit. Soledad Mission is far away from nearby towns, but it is well worth a visit to the mission, the beautiful gardens, and the ruins left of a few adobe wall sections of the buildings once a part of the mission quadrangle. Behind the mission the areas for the cemetery, the deteriorating adobe walls of the original mission, the blacksmith shop area, other Indian workshop areas, mills, and living quarter areas are on display.

More information and photographs of the mission are available at the Soledad Mission web site, “Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad” section of Wikipedia, and the “Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad” section of A Virtual Tour of the California Missions web site.

While my photographs focus on the uses of local stone, you will also find photographs of all of the parts of the Mission and grounds. Consider this part of our web site as a stroll through the mission and grounds with us via our photographs. Peggy B. and Pat Perazzo

• Front of the Mission & the Gardens
• Soledad Mission Museum
• Adobe Wall Section Ruins, Shop Area, & Cemetery
• History of the Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (See below.)

The following is from the “Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad” article on Wikipedia:

“Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, known colloquially as the Soledad Mission or Mission Soledad, is a Spanish mission located near the present-day town of Soledad, California.  The mission was founded by the Franciscan order on October 9, 1791 to convert the Native Americans living in the area to Catholicism.  It was the thirteenth of California’s Spanish missions, and is the namesake of the city of Soledad.

“After the 1835 secularization of the mission and the later sale of building materials, the mission fell into a state of disrepair and soon after was left in ruins.  A restoration project began in 1954 and a new chapel was dedicated in 1955.  The chapel now functions as a chapel of Our Lady of Solitude, a parish church of the Diocese of Monterey.  The priests’ residence was later recreated, and functions as a museum.

History

Pre-contact eras

“The remains of Arlington Springs Man on Santa Rosa Island are among the traces of an ancient habitation in California, dated to the last ice age, Wisconsin glaciation about 13,000 years ago. The first humans are therefore thought to have made their homes among the southern valleys of California's coastal mountain ranges some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, with the earliest of these people known only from archaeological evidence….”

Mission era

“Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, La Misión de María Santísima, Nuestra Señora Dolorosísima de la Soledad, was founded October 9, 1791 by Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, the 13th of 21 missions in the California mission chain.

“The Chalon, a subgroup of the Ohlone and arguably the original residents of the Salinas Valley, were converted and brought to work and live here, followed by Esselen and Yokut people.  By 1803, there were 627 Mission Indians at Mission Soledad.  At the Mission many Chalon married local Esselen speakers, while others married Yokuts who were brought into the mission between 1806 and 1834….”

Restoration and reconstruction

“In 1954, when the Mission Soledad restoration was begun, only piles of adobe dirt and a few wall sections from the cuadrángulo (quadrangle) remained.  The chapel was reconstructed and dedicated under the auspices of the Native Daughters of the Golden West on October 9, 1955. The ruins of the quadrangle, cemetery, and some of the outer rooms, while not restored, can still be seen. Governor Arrillaga’s grave was identified and given a new marker.

“The Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad is now a functioning Catholic chapel and public museum.”