Mission San Xavier del Bac

The old mission is the most complete mission in Arizona. And other than being enlarged it's basically the way it always was.

This morning since there was some pretty clouds in the sky I decided it would be a good time to take some pictures of the Mission San Xavier del Bac which is only about five miles from me. Pictures taken outdoors seem to look a lot better if there are some nice clouds in the sky. The Spanish started building this Mission in 1783 and it's still in use today with services held every Sunday.

                            theboondork

You might notice that the cupola on the right isn't finished and you would think that there is a cool, mysterious, secret explanation for something of that magnitude but unfortunately it's far more mundane... They ran out of money, so the builders, craftsmen and artisans, packed up their tools and left. And since this is now a National Historic site it can't be changed.

A lot of other buildings have been built around the mission since the 1700s including an Indian school. So the complex is a lot bigger than it used to be.

This shows some of the original Adobe bricks that the church was built out of. Adobe has to be covered with something or it weathers rather quickly

Entrance to the Mission San Xavier. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the interior of the church