Founding
the
Mission
San Buenaventura was founded on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1782. It was the ninth
and last mission Father Serra founded himself in his lifetime. On that day
Father Serra raised a cross to celebrate his ninth mission.
Mission
San Buenaventura was going to be the 3rd mission founded but became
the 9th. This change of plans was due to the fact that there was a
shortage of military escorts and other necessities. Finally, after 12 years of
waiting, the mission was founded in the year 1782.
Mission
San Buenaventura was named after Saint Bonaventure. He was a bishop in the
Here is a picture of Saint Bonaventure who the mission
was named after and Father Serra who founded the mission.
The
Mission
San Buenaventura’s chapel has a bell tower to its right and an arched doorway
in its center. The building is made of white stone and black wood strips.
Mission San Buenaventura is the only mission to have wooden bells.
An
isosceles triangle made of the wood strips sits above the doorway with a square
window in its upper portion. Above it is another triangle this time slightly
more angled, with its two top lines made of roof shinglings.
The left side of the building has a stone buttress. This buttress
is about 16 feet tall and slopes forward almost is if stairs.
The bell tower is made of 5 sections.
The first section is the tallest and goes up to the beginning of the second
triangle. The second section has the first bell in it and goes up to the tip of
the second triangle. The third section is the shortest only about ¾ of the 2nd
section and has the smaller bell in it. The 4th and 5th
sections are the dome, a half sphere covered in black and white stripes, and
the small “box” that sits on the dome. On the top of the first, second, and
third sections there are little balusters on the corners.
The mission’s bell tower which is the only one to contain
wooden bells and the mission’s facade.
The
Even
though the mission was close to the sea, hence the nick-name “Mission by the
Sea”, it needed a fresh water source. To solve this predicament the Native
Americans built a 7 mile long aqueduct. The aqueduct also had a settling tank
to filter the water.
The
aqueduct was built out of trenches and tubes that were above ground. Floods damaged
them so now there is barely anything left of the tunnels and tubes. The
aqueduct took 10 years to build and went from the
The
aqueduct not only supplied the mission with water, it also supported crops. It allowed
the mission to grow exotic fruits including bananas, coconuts, figs and grains
that the other missions simply did not have. When an explorer came to the
mission he described it as “astounding varieties of agricultural products.” The
mission also raised livestock, such as cattle and pigs.
There
also was an olive press for pressing olives into olive oil.
The mission olive press used for pressing olives and
settling tank used for filtering water brought by the aqueduct.
Life
at the
The
Native Americans that lived at the mission have a story to tell in their daily
life. One tribe mainly inhabited the area—the Chumash.
Neophytes
were people who were recently converted to a new belief. They lived under a
highly enforced schedule. A normal day may have looked like this:
·
Sunrise= wake up
·
Next= mass
·
1 hour later=
breakfast
·
45 min later=
work
·
Noon= lunch
·
Next= more work
·
Next= dinner and
break
·
8pm-9pm= go to
bed
By
1816, 1,328 natives lived at the mission. Women would weave baskets and washed
clothes at the fountain, while men tended the fields and did other jobs in the
workshops.
Early
in the mission’s history, neophytes were not allowed to follow their cultural
traditions. However when Fray Jose ran the mission in 1806-1823 they were able
to continue a few traditions.
Unmarried
women and girls over the age of nine had to live separated from unmarried men.
Unmarried women lived in places called monjerios. Towns near the mission were
where unmarried neophytes lived.
Chumash baskets and the fountain
where women would have washed clothes.
Building
the Mission
The
first church was temporary and made of wood and grasses. It burned down in
1794, 12 years after the founding of the mission.
In 1812 a serious earthquake hit the
mission. It completely destroyed the church. Finally in 1816 the indians rebuilt the church. This second church was made of
adobe.
Adobe
is a type of brick made from water, hay, and clay. The water and clay made up
the mass of the brick while the straw gave it strength. Since there weren’t any
ovens, the bricks sat in the sun to harden. Sometimes the neophytes used their
feet to mix the ingredients.
Once
all the bricks were made, workers used mud to stick the bricks together. The
brick walls became very thick because of insulation problems and support
issues.
When
the neophytes finished the mission, there was a four sided complex. In the
middle of the complex there was a courtyard with a fountain in the center.
There was a “sub-courtyard” outside the main quadrangle. The area surrounding
it was the friars’ courters. The monjerios were next to the bell tower, along
with other living spaces. The church was the side wall. The longest wall was
the workshops. Next to the church was the cemetery.
Map Key 
Dark green = cemetery
Yellow = church
Greenish yellow = bell tower
Light amber = living courters
Reddish brown = friars’ courters
Grayish brown =
workshops List
of Sources
“California Missions,” retrieved Jan. 17, 2009. <missions.bgmm.com>
“
Garretson, Rob. “Mission San Buenaventura,” The California Missions On-Line Project. Retrieved Jan. 17, 2009. <www.cuca.k12.ca.us/lessons/missions/Buenaventura/ SanBuenaventura.html>
MacMillan,
Dianne. Missions of the
Margaret, Amy. Mission San Buenaventura. PowerKids Press, New York, NY. 2000.
“Mission San Buenaventura,” Wikipedia. Retrieved Jan. 17, 2009. <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Buenaventura>
Weber, Tricia. “Mission San Buenaventura.” April 27, 2007. retrieved Jan. 17, 2009. <californias-missions.org/individual/mission_san_buenaventura.htm>
An inside view of the chapel at Mission San Buenaventura.