SAN XAVIER-THE CHURCH

San Xavier Mission is stunning.
It's breathtakingly,surprisingly beautiful.

Unlike the equally beautiful Spanish mission at San Juan Capistrano, San Xavier has the element of surprise.  You drive up onto it, from a barren, arid, desert land and it hits you right in the face.

San Juan Mission, as I recall, is nestled amongst many trees and in a fairly urban area.  It reveals itself to you little by little.  Not so, The Dove of the Desert.

Approaching the mission from state highway 19, you enter the Tohono O'Odham reservation and cross the Santa Cruz river.  Yes, it's one of those usually dry rivers which run through Tucson.  Occasionally, though...this

looks like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7iJhLUflGk&feature=related

which helps to explains the full name of the mission, which is San Xavier del Bac.  'Del bac' means...where the water reappears.  Arizona has many rivers which go underground for a time and then emerge, once again, on the surface.  Water, on the desert, is worth more than gold.  So, a place where water appeared must have seemed like paradise.

You do get a glimpse of the dove, from the highway.  Actually, you can see the gleam of the dome of the mission from many high points around Tucson.  But nothing prepares you for your first good look of it, as you turn the corner and see this.

That stark white against that blue sky leaves you breathless.

Let's take notice of something right here.  Do you see the difference in the color of the left tower and the right one?  Does it remind you of a Clorox commercial?  For many years now, restoration work has been done on this historic building.  What you see is the difference in the tower which has been restored and the tower which has not.  Another bit of information to digest is this:  No one has ever known...nor probably ever will know...just why that right tower was never finished.

It is a mystery.

http://arizonanotebook.com/?p=660

You must remember that almost everything you see in and on this mission is made of mud....adobe, to be precise.  Trees are scarce on the Sonoran Desert now and most assuredly also were back in the 1700's when construction began.  Embellishments which would have been carved in wood or cast in precious metals in European churches could only be made from the lowly adobe from which the very building itself was created. 

Even on a desert, mud doesn't last forever, so in 1989 restoration was begun and is ongoing.

This is what a lot of the interior looked like in its 200+ year old state.

The many pictures to follow will show off the true beauty after the restoration.  I am ignorant about both Catholicism and architecture and don't know the right terminology for the things I will show you.  I will just let the  pictures speak for themselves.

There is a vast amount of interesting information and many pictures of the restoration on this website.

http://www.patronatosanxavier.org/

It was difficult to take pictures the day we were there.  Even after the last Mass, the church was filled with people...lighting candles and praying or taking pictures and gawking.  My favorite times to visit are on weekdays when there are fewer people.  Perhaps I'll try again, another day, to get some better pictures to share.

The small museum is well worth the time it takes to visit it.  It is housed in the original living quarters for the priests. Note the thickness of the walls.

I'm thinking these steps, leading to a window, were for the express purpose of facilitating the necessary (at the time) practice of watching for marauding Apaches.

These halls are so very narrow...and have very low ceilings.

Look at the detail even in such a place as the hall ceiling.

This hallway is even more narrow and low-ceilinged than the other one!

Some artifacts on display in the original dining area.

I love this fireplace.  It doesn't have a chimney but it does have two quite practical indentations to hold clay vessels.

The courtyard used to be heavily planted with groundcovers and other plants.  It was determined that all that moisture was part of the cause of the disintegration of the adobe plaster, so a few years ago, it was paved with bricks and most plants removed.  It isn't as lovely as it was back then....but obviously, this change was necessary.

Once again, I find myself with many leftover pictures. 

So.........

Chapter Three...tomorrow.

I am grateful for the people who stepped in to save this wondrous and special place.