Self-Guided Tour - Nave

icon of a wall niche

Quick Facts

Location:

Tumacácori mission grounds

Step through the arched entryway and into the remains of an impressive nave, the central hall of the church. In this room, indigenous people and Spanish settlers prayed and celebrated the Mass each day. There were no pews. People knelt or stood during services. Along the walls are four side altars where devotional candles might be placed. In the walls above are niches where ornate statues of saints once stood. 

Along the interior walls, weathering has exposed the sun-dried adobe bricks made by mission residents. The once brightly-painted walls were decorated by the steady hands of artisans both indigenous and Spanish.  

With the rising sun, families and individuals living in the mission would make their way to the nave to gather and start the day. It is likely that men and women were separated by sex, as was the colonial manner. Here, indigenous people learned and practiced new religious traditions in new languages. They adopted new deities and established a new worldview under the direction of the padres. In this space, there were tears, both happy and sad. There was loss, celebration, learning, and change. 

Shortly after the residents left in 1848, the roof timbers were taken by local settlers for construction elsewhere. For the next seventy years, the nave was exposed and heavily damaged by weather. Looters, seeking Jesuit treasure that never existed, dug holes in the walls and floors.