Magical spaces rich in history, the missions of California, featured here in all-new photography, invite reverie and hint of romance.

The twenty-one missions of California, from San Diego to San Francisco Solano, are historic treasures and sites of pilgrimage for visitors from the world over. Intrinsically beautiful structures typically built of adobe brick and wood, adorned with towers, domes, whitewashed stucco, often surrounded by lush gardens, the missions are at the very heart of California.

Established by Spanish padres, built by Native Californians, and preserved and restored by historians and architects, California’s missions are unique monuments to the region’s early American Indian and European histories. This colorful, informative exploration of all twenty-one missions, each with its own rich story to tell, journeys along the historic Camino Real, from Mission Dolores with its flower-strewn courtyard gardens, in San Francisco, to San Juan Capistrano, famous for the swallows that flock to its inviting grounds. With lush photography that captures the missions’ details so splendidly, this is the perfect book for mission visitors and lovers of their strong and simple forms.

Rubén G. Mendoza is an archaeologist, author, photographer, and founding faculty member of California State University, Monterey Bay. Melba Levick is a widely published and exhibited photographer who lives and works in Paris, California, and Spain. She has been the photographer for many books published by Rizzoli.