Thursday Doors – Santa Barbara Mission and Mausoleum

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Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Dan Antion at No Facility invites us to join in by creating a Thursday Doors post and then sharing the link in his blog anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

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I posted some photos of the Santa Barbara downtown area. In this post, I include the Mission and the Mausoleum in the cemetery as part of the mission and a few of my favorite doors in the downtown area.

Old Mission Santa Barbara

The Spanish influence of Santa Barbara dated to 1542 when the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed through what is now called the Santa Barbara Channel for the Kingdom of Spain. In 1602, Spanish maritime explorer Sebastián Vizcaino gave the name “Santa Barbara” to the channel. The name of the City of Santa Barbara comes from the legend of Saint Barbara, a girl who was beheaded by her father for following the Christian Faith.

The first permanent European residents were Spanish missionaries and soldiers under Felipe de Neve, who arrived in 1782 and constructed the Presidio. They were sent to both secure the Spanish claim to the region and to convert the indigenous people to Catholicism. Many of the Spaniards brought their families with them and formed a small town.

The Mission Santa Barbara was founded by Padre Fermin Lasuén on December 4, 1786.

Entrance of the Mission
Courtyard
Courtyard

Chapel

Cemetery and Mausoleum

One section of the mission is the cemetery with the mausoleum on one side. The cemetery began as part of the essential mission operations in 1789, and the first part of the mausoleum was constructed to hold the remains of several of the pioneer Franciscan friars, such as Fr. Joseph O’Keefe, O.F.M. (1842-1915), who is credited as being the link between the end of the mission period and the beginning of modern times. Over the years, the cemetery and the mausoleum have served as an important connection to the Santa Barbara area and several prominent citizens who were part of the early history of Santa Barbara. 

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb, or the tomb within the mausoleum.

(Here are the 15 Hauntingly Beautiful Mausoleums around the world including Westminster Abbey in England, Taj Mahal in India, Terracotta Soldiers in China.)

In the center of the cemetery is this Fig tree. The Moreton Bay Fig tree, native to Australia, is thought to have been planted around 1890.

Family mausoleum

A few of my favorite doors

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Thursday Doors – Santa Barbara Mission and Mausoleum

Thank you for reading.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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