Mission San Juan Capistrano is a former Spanish mission founded in 1776 in colonial Las Californias by Spanish Catholic missionaries of the Franciscan Order. Named for Saint John of Capistrano, the Spanish Colonial Baroque style church was located in the Alta California province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Today, it is located at 26801 Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California. The Mission was secularized by the Mexican government in 1833, and returned to the Roman Catholic Church by the American government in 1865. The mission was damaged over the years by a number of natural disasters, but restoration and renovation efforts date from around 1910.
