Mission Santa Gertrudis (Spanish: Misión Santa Gertrudis), originally to be called Dolores del Norte, was a Spanish mission established by the Jesuit missionary Georg Retz in 1752 in what is today the Mexican state of Baja California. It is located about north of San Ignacio, Baja California Sur.
History
left|thumb|View of the mission grounds.
The future mission site was discovered by the missionary-explorer Fernando Consag, and work at the site was begun a year before the formal founding of the mission. Consag's sponsors for establishing this mission were the Marquis de Villapuente and his wife Dona Gertrudis de la Peña after whom the mission was named.
Assisted by Andrés Comanji, Consag discovered a spring as well as ancient rock paintings a mere three kilometers from the site of the mission. He enlisted the aid of the Cochimi to transport water from the spring of Santa Gertrudis and used it to establish vineyards for sacramental wine production. These vines became the basis for the contemporary vineyards of Baja California.
Architecture
thumb|left|upright|The [[altarpiece.]]
The architecture of the mission is reminiscent of the medieval styles of the country of origin of Retz, with carved stone. The beautiful church doors are flanked by finely decorated obelisk style columns.
The mission was finally abandoned in 1822. The church was extensively renovated in 1997, substantially altering its historical character.
Ecology
thumb|Oasis de Santa Gertrudis
thumb|Detail of a map of central Baja California peninsula showing Santa Gertrudis and nearby arroyo watercourses
The area surrounding the old mission, called Oasis de Santa Gertrudis, is one of a number of oasis systems associated with Spanish missions in Baja California. The Santa Gertrudis site is classified as interior mountain mid-peninsula oasis, and is considered to be on the smaller side relative to the 183 other identified oases on the Baja California peninsula. Baja has no perennial rivers so what mesic habitats exist are "small riparian environments" Biologists from San Diego State University who visited the site in 1990 described it as "thickly vegetated, wide, funnel-shaped, rocky arroyo which narrows at its eastern end at the western foot of the ".
The mission took advantage of an existing spring to sustain the settlement, and created reservoirs Writing in the mid-20th century, Homer Aschmann said the spring had failed but parts of ditch remained visible. and the site was never self-sufficient, but the combination of the spring and the fact that "numerous Indians could only be converted if they were not removed from their home territory" led the Spanish missionaries to lay out grain fields, fruit orchards and vineyards at the location. the overstory is dominated by indigenous Washingtonia filifera, Washingtonia filifera var. robusta and introduced date palms. According to ethnobotanists Rafael de Grenade and Gary Paul Nabhan, the Baja mission oasis ecosystems generally support local biodiversity through "highly interactive, though not truly mutualistic relationships...providing food resources to temporary and permanent resident species, ecosystem structure for nesting and habitat sites, shade for understory species and organic matter that alters soil composition and moisture. Grapevines, pomegranate bushes and fig trees as understory introduced species also provide food and habitat resources as well as contribute to the agroecosystem structure and function."
350px|center|Panorama of the mission
See also
- Mission San Borja Hot Springs
- Spanish missions in California
- List of Jesuit sites
References
- Vernon, Edward W. 2002. Las Misiones Antiguas: The Spanish Missions of Baja California, 1683-1855. Viejo Press, Santa Barbara, California.
- Kier, David. 2016. Baja California Land of Missions
M&E BOOKS, El Cajon, California.