Mission Santa Clara De Asis

Getting There:

To get to Mission Santa Clara de Asis begin by heading North on Highway 99 for about 35 miles. After passing Madera merge onto Highway 152 West on the left toward Los Banos and Gilroy. Los Banos is a great place to stop and get snacks or take a bathroom break and Gilroy is a great place to shop at the outlets. Continue on 152 for about 85 miles until you get to Highway 101 North toward San Jose and Watsonville for 33 miles. Merge onto Interstate 880 South toward Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. Take the Alameda exit toward Santa Clara then get on the 82 North ramp toward Santa Clara University. Stay right onto the Alameda and you will pass Santa Clara University and shortly after you will reach Mission Santa Clara de Asis at 500 El Camino Real in Santa Clara, California. From Fresno the trip takes about 2 hours 45 minutes and it’s a fairly easy drive.

The Mission Today:

I had previously visited Santa Clara University for a friend’s graduation but never had the chance to visit the mission itself. This assignment was the perfect opportunity to visit my friend Anne who lives in Santa Clara and visit the mission. Before visiting the mission I read up on the mission’s history so I would know the story behind what I was going to see.

The mission stands in the center of the University campus, which is lush with greenery. Huge palm trees and green grass are found across the campus and surround the mission. Santa Clara University is the oldest college in California and is the only college to be the successor of a Spanish Mission.

The mission now stands at it’s fifth site. The first was built in 1777 but flooded because it was too close to the Guadalupe River. It was moved to a second, temporary site until a permanent site could be blessed by Padre Sierra. That temporary mission was destroyed in the earthquake of 1818, and it was moved to yet another temporary site. Construction began on the fourth church in 1822. It became California’s first college in 1851 but in 1926 the church was destroyed again by a fire. The church that stands today was constructed in 1928 as part of the Santa Clara University campus.

Exterior and Interior Remodeling:

After the fire of 1926, the university tried to restore the church to it’s original state as a 100 foot long adobe structure that was 44 feet wide and 20 feet high. The walls are four feet thick at the bottom and taper to two feet thick at the top. The walls are whitewashed with a beautiful decorative border painted inside. The interior of the mission is gorgeous and I was taken aback when I saw it. I did not realize the mission was so artistically decorated. A Mexican artist, Augustin Davila, painted the original altar that stood before the fire ruined it. The mural has been copied and features angels in the clouds and is extremely colorful. It has been touched up as the remodeling process has continued.

Some of the original statues and paintings were rescued during the fire of 1926, as well as one of the bells. In the final reconstruction they university made the church wider so that it could serve as the chapel for the university. The front of the church has been designed to match the original perfectly with only one tower. The roof of the church is reddish, brown and is done in tiles. These tiles are the original tiles, which were saved from the 1822 church as it began to fall apart. At the front of the mission stands a very tall cross which I was told was a reproduction of the original.

An important link to the missions past still remains. It is the Church bells. A promise was given to King Charles IV in 1777 that they would be rung every night at 8:30 in memory of those who have died. The bells have been rung every night since then.

Mission History:

Junipero Serra, first Father-Presidente of the Alta California Mission Chain, founded the Mission Santa Clara de Asis on January 12th, 1777. It was the 8th of California's 21 missions and it was the only mission named for a woman. It was named after Saint Claire of Assisi who founded the Poor Clares order of nuns.

Father Junipero Serra (1713-1784)

Mission Santa Clara was the second mission to be founded in the San Francisco Bay area. The first was Mission San Francisco de