Architecture of the California missions

The architecture of the California missions was influenced by several factors, those being the limitations in the construction materials that were on hand, an overall lack of skilled labor, and a desire on the part of the founding priests to emulate notable structures in their Spanish homeland. While no two mission complexes are identical, they all employed the same basic building style.

Site selection and layout

Although the missions were considered temporary ventures by the Spanish

thatch or reeds. It was these simple huts that would ultimately give way to the stone and adobe

buildings which exist to this day.

The first priority when beginning a settlement was the location and construction of the church (iglesia). The majority of mission sanctuaries were oriented on a roughly east–west axis to take the best advantage of the sun's position for interior illumination; the exact alignment depended on the geographic features of the particular site.^[3]^[4] Once the spot for the church was selected, its position would be marked and the remainder of the mission complex would be laid out. The priests' quarters, refectory, convento, workshops, kitchens, soldiers' and servants' living quarters, storerooms, and other ancillary chambers were usually grouped around a walled, open court or patio (often in the form of a quadrangle) inside which religious celebrations and other festive events often took place. The cuadrángulo was rarely a perfect square because the Fathers had no surveying instruments at their disposal and simply measured off all dimensions by foot. In the event of an attack by hostile forces the mission's inhabitants could take refuge within the quadrangle.

The basic, common elements found in all of the Alta California missions can be summarized as follows:^[5]

Arched corridors;
Curved, pedimented gables;
Terraced bell towers (with domes and lanterns) or bell walls (pierced belfries);
Wide, projecting eaves;
Broad, undecorated wall surfaces; and
Low, sloping tile roofs.

The Alta California missions as a whole do not incorporate the same variety or elaborateness of detail in their design exhibited in the structures erected by Spanish settlers in Arizona, Texas, and Mexico during the same T.V period;^{[clarification needed]} nevertheless, they "...stand as concrete reminders of Spanish occupation and admirable examples of buildings conceived in the style and manner appropriate to the country in which they were built."^[6] Some fanciful accounts regarding the construction of the missions claimed that tunnels were incorporated into garden the design, to be used as a means of emergency egress in the event of attack; however, no historical evidence (written or physical) has ever been uncovered to support these wild assertions.^[7]^{[note 1]}

Building materials

The scarcity of imported materials, together with a lack of skilled laborers, compelled the Fathers to employ simple building materials and methods in the construction of mission structures. Since importing the quantity of materials necessary for a large mission complex was impossible, the padres had to gather the materials they needed from the land around them. Five basic materials were used in constructing the permanent mission structures: adobe, timber, stone, brick, and tile.

spring or creek). The ground was dug up and soaked with water, whereupon bare-legged workers would stomp the wet earth and binders into a homogeneous consistency fit for carrying to, and placing in, the brick molds

.

The mixture was compressed into the wooden formas, which were arranged in rows, and leveled by hand to the top of the frame. From time to time, a worker would leave an imprint of his hand or foot on the surface of a wet brick, or perhaps a literate workman would inscribe his name and the date on the face. When the forms were filled, the bricks were left in the sun to dry. Great care was taken to expose the bricks on all sides, in order to ensure uniform drying and prevent cracking. Once dry, the bricks were stacked in rows to await their use. California adobes measured 11 by 22 inches (280 by 560 mm), were 2 to 5 inches (51 to 127 mm) thick, and weighed 20 to 40 pounds (10 to 20 kg), making them convenient to carry and easy to handle during the construction process.[10]

Facilities for

lime was unavailable to them. Colored stones and pebbles were added to the mud mixture, giving it "a beautiful and interesting texture."^[13]

Ladrillos (conventional bricks) were manufactured in much the same manner as adobes, with one important difference: after forming and initial drying, the bricks were fired in outdoor

paving bricks were equal in thickness to the common variety, but ranged from 11 to 15 inches (280 to 380 mm) across.^[14]

Many of the structures erected with this type of brick remained standing long after their adobe counterparts had been reduced to rubble.

The earliest structures had roofs of

biographer of Junípero Serra) claims that Mission San Antonio de Padua was actually the first to use them.^[17] Aside from their obvious advantage over straw roofs in terms of fire retardance, the impermeable surface also protected the adobe walls below from the damaging effects of rain

. The original tiles were secured with a dab of adobe and were held in place because of their shape, being tapered at the upper end so they could not slide off one another.

Construction methods

The earliest projects had a layer of

foundation, upon which the adobes were placed. Later, stone and masonry were used for foundation courses, which greatly added to the bearing capacity of the brickwork.^[18] Aside from superficial leveling, no other ground preparation was done before construction started. There is some evidence to indicate that the initial structures at some of the outposts were produced by setting wooden posts close together and filling the interstitial spaces with clay.^[19] At completion, the building would be covered with a thatched roof and wall surfaces would be coated with whitewash to keep the clay exterior from eroding. This type of construction is known as "wattle and daub" (jacal to the natives) and eventually gave way to the use of adobe, stone, or ladrillos. Even though many of the adobe structures were ultimately replaced with ones of piedra or brick, adobe was still employed extensively and was the principal material used in building the missions as there was an almost universal lack of readily-available stone. The adobes were laid in courses and cemented together with wet clay. Due to the low bearing strength of adobe and the lack of skilled brick masons (albañils), walls made of mud bricks had to be fairly thick. The width of a wall depended mostly on its height: low walls were commonly two feet thick, while the highest (up to thirty-five feet) required as much as six feet of material to support them.^[20]

Timbers were set into the upper courses of most walls to stiffen them. Massive exterior

pilasters on the inside of the building to resist the lateral thrust of the buttresses and prevent the collapse of the wall. Pilasters and buttresses were often composed of more durable baked brick, even when the walls they supported were adobe. When the walls got too high for workers on the ground to reach the top, simple wood scaffolding was erected from whatever lumber was available. Many times posts were temporarily cemented into the walls to support catwalks. When the wall was completed, the posts were removed and the voids filled with adobe, or were sometimes sawed off flush with the surface of the wall.^[21]

The

machines were fashioned out of wood and rope, and were usually similar in configuration to a ship's rigging. In fact, sailors were often employed in mission construction to apply their knowledge of maritime rigging to the handling of loads.^[22] It is not apparent as to whether or not the padres used pulleys in their lifting devices, but these instruments nevertheless got the job done. Unless adobes were protected from the elements they would eventually dissolve into nothing more than heaps of mud. Most adobe walls, therefore, were either whitewashed or stuccoed inside and out. Whitewash was a mixture of lime and water which was brushed on the interior surfaces of partition walls; stucco was a longer-lasting, viscous blend of aggregate (in this case, sand) and whitewash, applied to the faces of load-bearing walls with a paleta (trowel). Usually the face of a wall that was to receive stucco would be scored so that the mixture would adhere better, or laborers would press bits of broken tile or small stones into the wet mortar to provide a varied surface for the stucco to cling to.^[23]

Once erection of the walls was completed, assembly of the

stonemasons to assist them in their endeavors; in 1797, for example, master mason Isidoro Aguílar was brought in from Culiacán, Mexico to supervise the building of a stone church at San Juan Capistrano.^[25] The church, constructed mostly of sandstone, featured a vaulted ceiling and seven domes. Indians had to gather thousands of stones from miles around for this venture, transporting them in carrettas or carrying them by hand. This structure, nicknamed "Serra's Church" once had a l20-foot-tall bell tower that was almost totally destroyed by in 1812.^[26]

process

iron ore.

Architectural elements

Since they were not trained in building design, the padres could only try to emulate the architectural aspects of structures they remembered from their homeland. The missions exhibit a strong

Roman influence in much of their design and construction techniques (as do many buildings in Spain), particularly in arch and dome construction. At Mission Santa Barbara, founding Father Ripali even went so far as to consult the works of 1st century B.C. Roman architect Vitruvius during the design phase of the project.^[30]

In addition to the domes, vaults, and arches, and the Roman building methods used to create them, the missions inherited several architectural features from mother Spain. One of the most important design elements of a mission was its church

Pala Asistencia which is a standalone structure. The campanario is unique in that it is native to Alta California

.

Other notable aspects of the missions were the long

choir loft

.

Decorations were usually copied from books and applied by native artists. The religious designs and paintings are said to "show the flavor of the Spanish Era, mixed with the primitive touch of the Indian artists."

thermal flywheel effect

).

Infrastructure

Stone

machinery. Water brought to the mission proper would be used for cooking, cleaning, irrigation of crops, and drinking. Drinking water was allowed to trickle through alternate layers of sand and charcoal

to remove the impurities.

Furniture

Mission Carmel's *campanile* ("bell tower") as seen from the central courtyard in June 2004.

Influenced by early

mission furnishings, "mission oak" furniture bears some similarity to the related Arts and Crafts style furniture, using similar materials but without Arts and Crafts' emphasis on refinement of line and decoration. Oak is the typical material, finished with its natural golden appearance that will age to a rich medium brown color. Components such as legs will often be straight, not tapered, and surfaces will be flat, rather than curved. Generous use of materials leads to heavy and solid furnishings, giving an impression of "groundedness", through simplicity, functionality and stability. Straightforward lines predominate, with little or no decoration, other than that which is incidental to function, such as forged iron hinges and latches. The leading designer of furnishings in this style during the Arts and Crafts movement was Gustav Stickley

.

Notes

^ One such hypothesis was put forth by author by Prent Duel in his 1919 work Mission Architecture as Exemplified in San Xavier Del Bac: "'Most missions of early date possessed secret passages as a means of escape in case they were besieged. It is difficult to locate any of them now as they are well mean."