The church of the San Juan Batista is unique in that it has three naives instead of the normal two, making it the widest of all the mission churches.

This is the main wing on the entrance of the mission and church. The rooms to the left served as living quarters. Today they are museum rooms that hold rare artifacts, some older than the mission itself.

Another room is the gift shop which was, in 1847, a temporary home for the Breen family. The Breens were survivors of the Donner Party tragedy who, after the tragic journey, had made their way to San Juan Batista.

The main entrance to the church of San Juan Batista is on the west side of the only original Spanish Plaza remaining in California. Surrounding the plaza grounds are a hotel, horse stables and a couple other original buildings.

On the north side of the church (in the far background in the picture above), running adjacent to the exterior hall, are two significant features: One is the el Camino Real, also known as The Royal Road and The King's Highway, on which the 21 missions of California were built, each a day's journey by horseback from the previous. The road roughly traces today's US 101.

The other significant feature is the San Andreas Fault on which the el Camino Real sits. A large portion of the north outer wall of the mission collapsed during the 1906 earthquake.

The cemetery at San Juan Batista holds the remains of some 4000 Native Americans from the mission. They were buried in their blankets rather than in coffins.

The mission's gardens were the hub of social activities such as weaving, candlemaking, carpentry and tanning.

Off the grounds of the mission and toward the town of San Juan Batista was a small fenced-in garden. And roaming around in the garden were these several breeds of chickens/hens/roosters...not sure which. But they were pretty, and it was fun running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get pictures of them. Here's what I got.

There is a town San Juan Batista, low-key that it is. It spreads over several blocks south of the mission and offers a walking tour that includes many original buildings and homes from the 1800s.