National Historic Landmark, for its pristine example of a Spanish mission church complex and functions as a parish church of the Diocese of San Diego as well as a museum and retreat center
Saturday and Sunday: 10am to 5pm
Last self-guided tour begins at 4:30pm
(closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day)
Seniors (65+) $5
Youth (ages 6-18) $3
Active Military and dependants, free of charge
Ages 5 and under, free of charge
Audio Tour available $3
For an additional $3, our new audio tour will bring Luiseno and Mission history alive as you walk through the exhibits in our Museum.
Head northwest on County Hwy S21 toward Mission Ave. Turn right onto San Luis Rey Mission Expy. Turn left onto Rancho Del Oro Dr. Continue straight onto San Luis Rey Ave.
Overview
Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is a former Spanish mission in San Luis Rey, a neighborhood of Oceanside, California. It was named for King Louis IX of France. Its nickname is "King of the Missions" It was founded by padre Fermín Lasuén on June 12, 1798, the eighteenth of the twenty-one Spanish missions built in the Alta California Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
At its prime, Mission San Luis Rey's structures and services compound covered almost 950,400 acres making it the largest of the missions, along with its surrounding agricultural land. Multiple outposts were built in support of Mission San Luis Rey and placed under its supervision. The current church, built in 1815, is the third church on this location. It is a National Historic Landmark, for its pristine example of a Spanish mission church complex. Today the mission complex functions as a parish church of the Diocese of San Diego as well as a museum and retreat center.
The first Peruvian Pepper Tree (Schinus molle) in California was planted here in 1830, now iconic, widely planted, and renamed the California Pepper tree in the state. After the Mexican secularization act of 1833 much of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia land was sold off. Indigenous peoples, previously forced to work on missions, were freed from direct subjugation in the mission system through this act.
With secularization of the mission in 1834, no religious services were held and the Luiseño were left behind by the fleeing Franciscan padres. The Mission's religious services restarted in 1893, when two Mexican priests were given permission to restore the Mission as a Franciscan college. Father Joseph O'Keefe was assigned as an interpreter for the monks. It was he who began to restore the old Mission in 1895. The cuadrángulo (quadrangle) and church were completed in 1905.
Today, Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is a working mission, cared for by the people who belong to the parish, with ongoing restoration projects. Mission San Luis Rey has a Museum, Visitors' Center, gardens with the historic Pepper Tree, and the original small cemetery.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mission San Luis Rey de Francia", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
