Founded in 1797, this mission claims the largest church among California’s original 21 missions. Unknowingly built directly atop the San Andreas Fault, the mission has been rocked by earthquakes. Bells hanging in the tower today include chimes that were salvaged after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake toppled the original mission. Scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Vertigo were shot here, although the bell tower in the movie's climactic scene was just a special effect.
Below the mission cemetery, you can spy a section of El Camino Real, the Spanish colonial road built to link California's first missions.