Of the 21 missions along the California coast, Mission San Juan Capistrano (daily; $6; 949/234-1300) has been the most romanticized. When the movement to restore the missions and preserve California’s Spanish colonial past was at its apogee in the late 1930s, its main theme tune was Leon Rene’s “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano,” popularizing the legend that these birds return from their winter migration every St. Joseph’s Day, March 19th. After wintering in Goya, Argentina, they do come back to Capistrano, along with several thousand tourists, but the swallows are just as likely to reappear a week before or a week after—whenever the weather warms up, really.
The mission, which has lovely, bougainvillea-filled gardens, stands at the center of the small, eponymously named town, a short detour inland along I-5 from the coast. Besides the birds, the main attractions include the small chapel, the last surviving church where the beatified Father Serra said Mass, widely considered to be the oldest intact church and perhaps the oldest building of any kind in California, and the ruins of the massive Stone Church, a finely carved limestone structure that collapsed in an earthquake in 1812, just six years after its completion. Many visitors to the chapel are terminally ill patients saying prayers to St. Pereguin, the patron saint of medical miracles.
To get a sense of the huge scale of the Stone Church, a full-sized replica called the New Church has been constructed behind the mission, and now serves as the official mission church, open to visitors except during religious services. Across the street from the New Church, a Michael Graves–designed local library gives an intriguing postmodern take on the mission style.
In the block between the Mission and I-5, the Walnut Grove Restaurant and Mission Inn Motel are two of the few survivors of old-style San Juan Capistrano, holding out against the relentless suburbanizing that has leveled many of the surrounding historic commercial structures. Another unique spot is the Coach House (949/496-8930) at 33157 Camino Capistrano, one of Southern California’s best small clubs for listening to live music.
