Carmel Mission

West court (behind the basilica), wall fountain, detail of the broken pediment, upper left side; Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, also known as the Carmel Mission, is a historic Roman Catholic church in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The church, first established on June 3, 1770 in nearby Monterey (near the native village of Tamo), was named for Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, Italy. It was the site of the first Christian confirmation in Alta California. In May 1771, the Viceroy approved Father Junípero Serra's petition to relocate the Mission to its current location near the present-day town of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Serra's goal was to put some distance between the Mission's neophytes and the Presidio of Monterey (the headquarters of Pedro Fages, who served as military governor of Alta California between 1770 and 1774, with whom Serra was engaged in a heated power struggle). Restored in 1931, it is a National Historic Landmark. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 2/10/2008