Full name: Nuestra Señora del Pilar de la Paz
Founding date: November 3, 1720 (relocated 50 miles south to Santa Rosa/Todos Santos in 1748, then 1 mile south in 1825) Mission #7
Catholic Order: Jesuit
Founded by: Padre Jaime Bravo, Padre Juan de Ugarte
Condition: No ruins remain at La Paz or the second site. Reconstructed, enlarged church at the third site.
Closing date: Closed in 1840.
GPS: Plaque at 24.1600, -110.3165 La Paz; Possible La Paz first mission site is in the Panteón Del Zacatal: 24.1127, -110.3440
Second (1748) site, north side of Todos Santos 23.460316, -110.219140 Mex. #19 Km. 49.5;
Final (1825) site: 23.449767, -110.225450 at the Todos Santos town plaza, Km. 51.
Access: Mex. #19 Km. 51.
Read more: HERE
Site 1, 1720-1748, Bay of La Paz (native name: Airapí)
2012 photo by David Kier
Site 2, 1748-1825, at Todos Santos, replacing Mission Santa Rosa there. This location was once known as Misión Vieja, 1.5 km./ 1 mile north of the town plaza at Site 3.
Todos Santos was originally the name of the Pilar de la Paz mission visita, established around 1725. It was very successful and in 1733 became Mission Santa Rosa de las Palmas. In 1748, the mission at La Paz moved south to it, and replaced Mission Santa Rosa. No native name was recorded for Todos Santos.
2017 photos by David Kier
Because Site 2 for Pilar de la Paz (1748-1825) was also Mission Santa Rosa (from 1733 to 1748), the Site 2 photos will be repeated for Mission Santa Rosa.
Site 3, 1825-1840, downtown Todos Santos
While technically still Mission Pilar de la Paz, after the 1748 relocation and especially after the Jesuit removal in 1768, this mission was called Todos Santos, the original visita name. After 1840, the mission became a parish church and continued to serve to newly arriving Mainland-Mexican population. The last Dominican missionary continued services until he left for the mainland in 1855.
2017 photos by David Kier
1919 photo by J.R. Slevin to compare:
2003 photos by Jack Swords
Site 1
Site 2
1957 & 1964 photos by Howard Gulick at Site 3
1950 photos by Marquis McDonald
Site 2
Site 3
1919 photo by J.R. Slevin at Site 3
1868 illustration by J. Ross Browne
Maps
I hope this was interesting or informative for you! Please be welcome to join our Baja California Land of Missions Book Group, on Facebook: HERE
- All the missions, quick look and history, north to south: HERE
- Other mission photo pages plus more Baja California history: HERE
- VivaBaja.com home page
The following chapter is from my book, Baja California Land of Missions Order your own copy from Amazon Books: HERE
#7 Nuestra Señora del Pilar de la Paz
(1720-1748 at Airapí, 1748-1840 at Todos Santos)
The seventh California mission was founded by two Jesuit padres: Jaime Bravo and Juan de Ugarte. The site was near the shore of La Paz Bay and locally known as Airapí. The journey to La Paz Bay began at Loreto on the Jesuit ship El Triunfo de la Cruz built in Mulegé from lumber cut in the mountains to the west. Padres Bravo and Ugarte were joined by Padre Clemente Guillén from Mission San Juan Bautista at Malibat (Ligüí), who came by land with soldiers and neophytes.
La Paz was unique as no one single Indian group lived there; instead, it was visited by several peninsula tribes of Guaycuras and Pericús (who came from the islands offshore). These various groups often were at war with each other. Padre Jaime Bravo would remain at La Paz until 1728 but always with four to twelve soldiers for protection due to perceived hostilities. Padre William Gordon replaced Bravo for the next five years.
One visita of Mission Pilar de la Paz was named Ángel de la Guarda. It was established in 1721 by Padre Bravo about twenty miles south, at a mountain-top oasis. On the western foot of the same mountain is a church ruin named El Novillo. El Novillo was sometimes shown on maps as a mission, but it was not. In 1725, Padre Bravo established another visita of La Paz about fifty miles to the south and close to the Pacific Coast. Bravo never recorded an Indian name for the location, but he named it Todos Santos. This visita was so productive that it became a separate mission in 1733 with the name Santa Rosa de las Palmas bestowed upon it.
In October 1734, after months of unrest, the various tribes in the cape region rebelled. They murdered Padre Nicolás Tamaral at San José del Cabo and Mission Santiago’s Padre Lorenzo Carranco was also killed, along with his two servants. At La Paz, a soldier who was guarding that mission was killed. Padre Sigismundo Taraval of the Santa Rosa mission was saved by his soldiers, who dragged him away just before the natives began to attack.
Following the rebellion, there were two years of vacancy at La Paz. Between 1737 and 1748, Jesuits from both the Santa Rosa and San Luis Gonzaga missions visited La Paz and conducted mission tasks. In 1748, the bay-side mission of La Paz relocated to Todos Santos, replacing the younger Santa Rosa mission already there. The mission name remained officially Nuestra Señora del Pilar de la Paz, but it was nearly always called Todos Santos after the move. See also the chapter on Mission Santa Rosa beginning on page 89.
When the Franciscans replaced the Jesuits in 1768, the population of neophytes was reported to be about ninety. An adobe church measuring sixty-seven feet by twenty-five feet was built in 1786 by the Dominicans. The native population had doubled to 181 by 1800. The mission remained at the same location until 1825 when it was moved a mile south, where the church is today, in the town plaza.
No remains of the original Pilar de la Paz mission at La Paz Bay are known to exist; however, a plaque on a La Paz city side street marks a possible location. The modern church in La Paz is sometimes called the mission site, but it is three blocks north and one block east from the plaque. Some local historians believe the mission was even a little further south, where old sketches showed palms growing.
The 1733-1825 Todos Santos site, that was home to two missions, is now a playground by a modern church from 1970. The 1825 mission site is the downtown church, where newer construction was added to older walls and foundations. Mission functions ceased about 1840, but church services continued on for the newer population arriving from the mainland of Mexico.
Missionaries recorded at Pilar de la Paz:
Jesuit
Jaime Bravo 1720-1728
William Gordon 1728-1733
(Vacant 1734-1736)
Bernhard Zumziel 1737-1750
(Mission moved to Todos Santos in 1748)
Johann Bischoff 1751-1752 and 1767-1768
Karl Neumayer 1752-1764
Francisco Franco 1764-1766
Franciscan
Juan Ramos de Lora April 5, 1768
José Murguía 1769
Marcelino Senra 1771
Miguel Sánchez 1771-1773
Dominican
José Fernández Salcedo and José Armésto May 15, 1773
Mariano Fernández 1790-1811
Jacinto Tiól 1812-1820
José Duro 1822
Gabriel Gonzáles 1825-1840 and 1850-1855
See the other mission pages: https://vivabaja.com/mission-albums/