El Camino Real -- On A Mission, California-Style

They call it "El Camino Real" - the Royal Road. Road signs urge visitors off the highway to enjoy the sights, and bells mark the 200-year-old mission buildings that gave the route its name.

From San Diego all the way north past San Francisco, California's famed Royal Road, also called the King's Highway, winds its way through the state's Spanish heritage. Hugging the coastline, it connects the 21 missions established by 18th-century Franciscan priests to convert the pagan natives and solidify their faraway king's holdings in the New World.

El Camino Real is now more a state of mind than a road. No single line connects all 21 dots. The easiest way to visit all the missions is to follow state Route 101; none of the buildings is too far off that path, and signs clearly mark the way.

Although the missions were secularized by the Mexican government when it wrested control of the territory from Spain, many have been reclaimed for religious use. Some include ruins that look as if they haven't been touched in more than a century. All have retained an aura of piety that commands the devotion of their congregations and the respect of their visitors.

A mixed legacy

Of course, the legacy of the California missions is a mixed bag, and those responsible for their upkeep know it. The Herculean efforts of the priests and friars are spoken of glowingly, but the disastrous effect they had on the native populations likewise is acknowledged.

Military men, who were never far away from the missions, were far more interested in conquering the natives than converting them. And whatever subjugation could not be brought about by force was accomplished even more devastatingly - by heretofore unknown diseases the white men brought with them.

Still, Californians remain justifiably proud of their missions. The buildings themselves are beautiful, with towering spires holding bells cast generations ago, intricately carved wooden altars, quiet courtyard gardens and tiny cemeteries that hold the state's ancestors.

If you've got time, visit all 21. They were originally built one day's journey apart, and visiting one a day remains a good pace to set for yourself (even if cars can now take you from one mission to the next in one to two hours). Remember many of the missions remain active churches, so exercise some decorum. Except for major holidays, the missions are open daily. Most charge a modest admission fee.

If time is limited, here are a few you might want to check out, working north from San Diego and its mission of San Diego de Alcala, established in 1769.

-- Mission San Luis Rey de Francia (San Luis Rey, 619-757-3651): Until the mid-1800s, this massive adobe structure was the tallest building in California. It still casts quite a shadow, with its scrubbed-white exterior and blue wooden dome, and may be the most visually imposing of the 21 missions.

Founded in 1798 and named for a 13th-century French king (which seems big of the Spanish), San Luis Rey de Francia is the largest of all the missions.

Visitors enter through a converted barracks to the left of the church and pass through exhibit rooms tracing the mission's history and showing how the friars lived. The mission church, built in 1811, includes original adobe walls up to 6 feet thick. The original wooden pulpit and marble baptismal font are still used.

-- Mission San Juan Capistrano (San Juan Capistrano, 714-248-2048): Founded in 1775, this is probably the most famous of all the missions largely because of the thousands of cliff swallows that return to it every St. Joseph's Day, March 19.

San Juan Capistrano may have the most beautiful garden of all the missions, filled with climbing red roses that seem ready to take over the grounds. But the mission's most dominant feature is the ruins of the Great Stone Church, a massive structure that was begun in 1806 and destroyed by an earthquake six years later.

The mission church, known as the Serra Chapel, is the only surviving structure in which Padre Junipero Serra, the founder of many of the California missions, is known to have said Mass. It includes an ornate wooden altar built some 300 years ago that was so huge it had to be trimmed to fit inside the building.

-- Mission San Buenaventura (Ventura, 805-643-4318): The last mission founded by Serra (in 1782), and the ninth in the chain, San Buenaventura sits directly adjacent to Ventura's Main Street, putting it in the middle of town and making it seem more a part of the community than many of its counterparts.

The stained-glass windows, false ceilings, wood paneling and canopied wooden pulpit are long gone, replaced with furnishings and other accouterments more in keeping with the church's 18th-century origins.

-- Mission Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, 805-682-4713): The first mission founded (in 1784) by Serra's successor, Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, Santa Barbara is probably the best-preserved of all. It certainly seems to have the biggest budget, judging by the size and condition of its museum, as well as the effort put into preserving its outbuildings.

As magnificent as the mission itself is, the real treasures here are the museum exhibits. They range from the original mission altar and music books to artifacts belonging to Garcia Diego, first bishop of California; from huge 18th-century canvases depicting the assumption and coronation of the Virgin Mary to brightly painted stone figures of Hope, Charity and Santa Barbara, the only extant statues carved by native California Indians.

In the church cemetery, seek out the plaque commemorating the burial place of Juana Maria, a native woman who was brought to Santa Barbara as the last living resident of nearby San Nicolas Island. No one remained who spoke her language when she was brought here, and she died after only a few weeks - a sad footnote to the sad history of Native Americans displaced in the name of civilization.

-- Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (San Luis Obispo, 805-543-6850): When Serra founded the mission in 1772, legend has it he rang a bell on the banks of San Luis Creek to attract the nearby Chumash Indians to religious services. Apparently he succeeded, and the plaza surrounding the old mission church still serves as a meeting place for residents of San Luis Obispo.

As you walk through the mission grounds, a pair of fountains catch your eye. A three-tiered, brightly colored tile fountain dominates the center of the courtyard, while a more winsome creation - depicting a young girl and a bear - sits near the entrance off Chorro Street.

-- Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo (Carmel, 408-624-3600): From the sun-baked wooden cross to the statue of St. Francis of Assisi that dominates the courtyard to the ornate casket built in the 1920s (and never used) to hold Junipero Serra's remains, San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo is the mission that most dramatically calls to mind the spiritual side of the missions. This was the second mission Serra founded (in 1770), the one where he established his office and the one in which he chose to be buried.

Despite the ornate sarcophagus later created for him, Serra remains under the church's altar, his grave marked by a simple marble tablet, set in the floor, that reads, "Fr. Junipero Serra/Apostol de California/1713-1784."

-- Mission San Francisco de Asis (San Francisco, 415-621-8203): Also known as Mission Dolores, the church here was dedicated in 1791 and stands as the oldest building in San Francisco. Much of the city's history is linked to Mission Dolores; the first Mass was celebrated on this spot June 29, 1776, a date now celebrated as San Francisco's birthday.

While the church itself is a beauty, particularly the ornate bell towers and gold-encrusted crosses that top the roof, the real treat here is the mission graveyard, a quiet oasis not far removed from the hustle of the city and the final resting place for a host of California's early settlers.

Also buried in the cemetery are some 5,000 native Americans in unmarked graves, commemorated by a statue of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the first American Indian candidate for sainthood. ----------------------------------------------------------------- IF YOU GO

Many of California's old missions are located on or near Interstate 5, Highway 101, and State Highways 37 and 82 - roughly the route of El Camino Real (The Royal Road), named after the Spanish monarchy, which financed expeditions into the state.

There are 21 missions stretching from San Diego to Sonoma that have been designated as part of a mission trail by state tourism officials.

The first and oldest mission on the trail is San Diego de Alcala in San Diego, established in 1769. The others are (in geographical order):

-- Southern California - San Luis Rey de Francia, in San Luis Rey; San Juan Capistrano, in the town of that name (and famed for the return of swallows each year on St. Joseph's Day); San Gabriel Arcangel, in San Gabriel; San Buenaventura, in Ventura; San Fernando Rey de Espana, in Mission Hills; Santa Barbara, in the town of that name; Santa Ines, in Solvang; La Purisma Conception, in Lompoc.

-- Central and Northern California - San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, in San Luis Obispo; San Miguel Archangel, in San Miguel; San Antonia de Padua, in Jolon; Nuestra Senora de las Soledad, in Soledad; San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, in Carmel; San Juan Bautista, in the town of that name; Santa Cruz, in the town of that name; Santa Clara de Asis, in Santa Clara; San Jose, in Fremont; San Francisco de Asis, Mission Dolores, in San Francisco; San Rafael Arcangel, in San Rafael; and San Francisco Solano, in Sonoma.