It begins here. This is the Presidio Chapel, the oldest continuously operating Church Parish in California. The first mission in Alta California was to be placed at Monterey, but Father Serra knew he needed to keep soldiers separated from Indian women if there was to be harmony with his hoped-for converts. So the mission moved over the hill to Carmel. The soldiers needed a church in which to attend mass, so this Chapel was built. It still stands on the very hill where priests and soldiers set up camp in the summer of 1770.

When the US Government re-opened the Presidio after the Spanish-American war, it was moved to its present location outside of downtown.



Photo No. 240L29 ©1999 Marc Shargel
Photographed at Monterey, CA

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