San Xavier del Bac (PapagoVa:k) is a historic Spanish mission about 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown Tucson, Arizona on the Tohono O'odham Reservation. Also known as the "white dove of the desert".
Founded in 1700, the present building dates from 1785. It is open to the public except on Sundays when it is used as a church. The San Xavier Festival is held the evening of the Friday after Easter and features a torch-light parade of Tohono O'odham and Yaqui tribal members.
The interior is richly decorated with ornaments showing a mixture of New Spain and Native American artistic motifs.
One of the more interesting historic features of the mission is that it is "unfinished". Early taxation rules dictated that missions under construction could not be taxed, so the mission was never finished, as noted by the absence of one dome.
External link
Online book on the mission (http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/online.bks/mission/titlmiss.htm)
SanXavierdelBac is a historic Spanish mission about 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown Tucson, Arizona on the Tohono O'odham SanXavier Indian Reservation, also known as the "white dove of the desert" or "place where the water appears" because the Santa Cruz River, which runs underground, surfaces nearby.
The SanXavier church and its Indian converts were originally protected from marauding Apache by the presido of Tucson established in 1775.
Visitors entering the massive, carved mesquite-wood doors of SanXavier are often struck by the coolness of the interior, and the dazzling colors of the paintings carvings, frescoes and statues.
Mission SanXavierdelBac, in Tucson, Arizona, offers a case study of the conservation of a historic-religious monument, revealing the unceasing efforts necessary to fund a large-scale restoration job, the extent of deterioration caused by previous stabilization efforts, and a return to an exterior maintenance program using slightly modified traditional materials and techniques.
SanXavierdelBac was established in 1697 by Eusebio Francisco Kino, a Jesuit missionary and explorer.
The Patronato SanXavier represents an exemplary model of a non-profit organization whose purpose is to direct, raise funds for, and oversee the preservation and restoration of a historic Southwestern mission.
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