Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Founded in 1770 by Father Junípero Serra, Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo was the second of California's 21 Spanish missions. Located on the Monterey Peninsula near present-day Carmel-by-the-Sea, it was named for Saint Charles Borromeo, a 16th-century Italian cardinal.
The mission was staffed by Franciscan friars from the College of San Fernando in Mexico City. Their primary goal was converting the local Esselen and Ohlone peoples to Catholicism and teaching European farming and craft skills.
Many Native Americans lived at the mission, either by choice or coercion. They formed the labor force that built the mission's adobe structures, tended vast fields of wheat, corn, and beans, and managed large cattle herds. The mission became a regional economic hub, trading with Spanish settlers and other missions.
After Mexican secularization in 1833, the Franciscans departed. The property served as a military post and school before the Catholic Church restored it in 1907. Today, as a National Historic Landmark, it welcomes visitors to explore its history, architecture, and the intertwined lives of the friars and Native peoples who once called it home.