Serra Chapel Adobe Repair and Lime Plastering -
Summer 2007

The second level of the Serra Chapel received much needed conservation treatments during June and July of 2007. Mission conservators, in conjunction with ARG Conservation Services, performed the necessary repairs. Some areas of the adobe construction were deteriorating and cracking, becoming structurally unsound and allowing moisture to penetrate into the walls. Read full story....

North Wall Project

The north wall of the Serra Chapel was rebuilt in the 1920s under the guidance of Father St. John O'Sullivan. (By the early twentieth century, the north end of the chapel, which had collapsed in the 1860s, was basically a mound of earth walled off from the rest of the building.) In undertaking the 1920s restoration work, Father O'Sullivan sought to rebuild the missing portions of the Serra Chapel not with modern methods, but in the same way the padres and neophytes had originally built the Mission. Read full story....

Conservation of the Peregrine Chapel

Abutting the east side of the Serra Chapel, the Peregrine Chapel is a small room dedicated to Saint Peregrine, the patron saint of those suffering from cancer and other life-threatening diseases. In July of 2005, Mission San Juan Capistrano retained the services of Architectural Resources Group to conduct an in-depth investigation of the small side chapel, which was reconstructed during a restoration of the Serra Chapel in the 1920s (as seen in this historic photograph). Read full story....

Conservation of the 1920s Pews

The Serra Chapel Project includes the conservation not only of the building envelope, but also of the artwork and furnishings housed within. The project to conserve the pews, which date to the 1920s, began in January of 2006. By May, the nearly 40 pews inside the chapel had undergone conservation work. Read full story....

The Conservation of the Stations of the Cross

The project to preserve the Serra Chapel includes the conservation of fourteen paintings depicting the Stations of the Cross. Thirteen of these paintings date from the eighteenth century. The exception is Station XII, a large, twentieth-century painting that appears to be a reproduction of an eighteenth-century Spanish Colonial painting by the artist, Jose Francisco Zervas. Read full story....