Mission Santa Inés, Virgen y Mártir
1760 Mission Drive, Solvang, CA 93463
Tel: 805-688-4815
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Mission Santa Ines was founded on September 17, 1804, nineteenth in the chain of twenty-one coastal establishments in the state. Other missions among the populous region of the Chumash Indians had previously been founded at San Luis Obispo (1772), San Buenaventura (1782), Santa Barbara (1786), and La Purisima (1787). Mission Santa Ines was founded specifically to facilitate conversions in the upper Santa Ynez Valley and interior mountains to the north and east. It was the final Chumash mission. Unlike most missions, Santa Ines developed over a relatively short time. Utilizing the skills of the Chumash neophytes from Missions Santa Barbara and La Purisima, the new mission experienced phenomenal intitial growth. Most missions began as simple temporary structures of wooden poles and thatch and were only gradually replaced by adobe brick and tile architecture. However, at Santa Ines, adobe buildings with tile roofs appeared within a year of the missions founding, thanks to skills of the workforce already trained at neighboring missions.
As the local neophyte population rapidly grew, the need for further construction increased, as did the ability of the friars to organize a sizable workforce. Priority was given to construction of the church, followed by housing for the friars, single women, and granaries. Other storage facilities, manufacturing areas, and housing for married neophyte families were added soon afterward. Irrigation works were important from the earliest years, due to summer drought. The water system was continually expanded to meet the needs of a growing population, greater crop production, larger herds of livestock, motive power for various mills, and water for pottery production and tanning. The State Park adjacent to the mission contains the remains of two reservoirs and two mills in a remarkable state of preservation. Impressive traces of the water system can also be found in the reservoir in front of the church and the lavanderia to the south near the Indian village.
Santa Ines was the site of the beginning of the Chumash Revolt of 1824, a rebellion not against the missionaries, but against the soldiers and increasingly hard ecenomic conditions following Mexican independence. The whipping of a neophyte by a corporal at Santa Ines sparked an uprising that affected three missions and took several months to suppress. THe mission experienced extensive destruction at that time.
Following secularization in 1834, the mission declined until finally abandoned in 1850. Portions of the mission quadrangle were used as private residences until the land was returned to the Church in 1864. Santa Ines was the original site of the first religious school and seminary in California in the 1840s. Today, it abuts the Danish American community of Solvang and is staffed by Capuchin Franciscans.
Landmark Status
California Historic Landmark #305
Directions to the Mission
From US-101 : Exit CA-246 and proceed east (approximately 14 miles). Map
Hours of Operation
9am - 5pm daily
Tours 9am - 4:30. Please call 805-688-4815 for more information.
Facilities
Gift shop
