Beautiful Mexican neoclassical style building atop a hill overlooking Santa Barbara. It was the tenth of the California missions to be founded by the Spanish Franciscans, and was established on the feast of Saint Barbara on December 4, 1786. Being the only mission escape Mexico’s policy of forced secularization, the mission still functions as a Franciscan friary and parish church. The mission offers both self- and docent-guided tours of the church, historic cemetery, and sacred garden.