Lonely Planet

54 Lonely Planet Traveller October 2017AS THE MIDDAY SUN BEATSdown on the white façadeof the Misión San Ignacio,its door creaks open. Thechurch’s warden, FranciscoZúñiga, steps through, gesturing to the agedwood. ‘This is original,’ he says, ‘from 1728.’That makes the door older than manytowns here in Baja California. The largestcity on the peninsula, Tijuana, was foundedin 1889. While the native history here islong – there are cave paintings by theCochimí people which are thought to datefrom as far back as 7,500 years ago – thehistory of modern settlements didn’t beginuntil the arrival of Jesuit missionaries frommainland Mexico in 1683. It was 1697before they founded the first Spanish townon the peninsula, Loreto, a three-and-a-halfhour drive further south from San Ignacio.They came by boat from Sinaloa, unsurewhether they were approaching an islandor a peninsula. They first landed atmodern-day La Paz, but were driven northby the native Pericúes and Guaycurapeople, and eventually ended up nearLoreto. Their first attempt at constructing achurch, Misión San Bruno, was abandonedin 1685 due to a shortage of food and water.In 1697, another Jesuit group led by theItalian priest Juan María de Salvatierraarrived in Loreto and tried again to constructa mission. This church, the Misión deNuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó, provedmore successful and the settlement becamethe first Spanish-claimed territory on thepeninsula, and the base from which themissionaries expanded their evangelicalwork throughout the region. The churchstill stands in Loreto, next to a museumdedicated to the history of the Jesuits.However, as the museum’s custodianHernán Murillo explains, the missionarieswho made it as far north as San Ignaciosaw a fall in the number of their flock dueto an unforeseen danger, which would berepeated across the continent. ‘There’s anexpression here: “The bellsthat call the wind,”’ he says.‘The San Ignacio missionwas started by the Jesuits andfinished by the Franciscans, but bythe time they completed the mission,they were seeing the effects of Westerners4. San Ignacio & LoretoUncover the history of Baja California through the churchesbuilt by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuriesarriving with diseases that the locals didn’thave immunity to. By the time the Missionwas finished there weren’t many people leftto go to the church. That’s why we say therewere only bells to call the wind.’Today, the village surrounding the MisiónSan Ignacio is home to just 700 people, whileLoreto is a larger town of 15,000. Until 1777Loreto governed the whole state, which at thetime stretched all the way up into what is nowthe USA, and much of the town’s architecturestill bears out that colonial legacy.Loreto is easy to explore on foot and isarranged around a central square, PlazaJuárez. From there it’s just a short stroll upthe tree-lined Avenida Salvatierra to themission. Restored several times aftercenturies of earthquake damage, it retainsan inscription above the door which atteststo how important it once was, translating as:‘The head and mother church of the missionsof upper and lower California’. Inside,behind the altar, sits an elaborately decoratedBaroque retablo that was transported hereat great expense from Mexico City.For a town with such a rich history, Loretois now a peaceful place. As dusk falls in thePlaza Juárez, couples sit outside a restaurantnamed 1697 sipping beers as they listen toa guitar player. They gaze across the squareto the imposing Spanish Colonial city hall.Underneath the word ‘Loreto’ it bears a stonelegend, naming the town as the ‘CapitalHistórica de las Californias’. But now, likethe beer drinkers themselves, it is a townleft alone with its memories.