San Carlos Cathedral, Monterey, California, originally uploaded by laurenmi.
This is Monterey’s cathedral, The San Carlos Cathedral, also known as the Royal Presidio Chapel, California’s longest continually operating house of worship, founded in 1770.
An extensive restoration project is currently underway. The building you see here was completed in 1794. It looked like they were working on the bell tower the other day.
Photo taken March 18, 2009.
Huh! I thought the Santa Barbara mission’s church was the oldest one operating in CA. What did I miss here?
By: scrabblequeen on March 20, 2009
at 4:43 pm
Santa Barbara may still be the oldest. The San Carlos Cathedral’s web site says “oldest continuously functioning church.” It may be that Santa Barbara was closed at some point, as most, if not all, of the missions were abandoned in the late nineteenth century.
By: Lauren on March 22, 2009
at 6:28 pm