Mission San Juan Bautista was founded by the Jesuit missionary Pedro de Ugarte in 1705, about 30 kilometers south of Loreto

Loreto, Baja California Sur

Loreto was the first Spanish settlement on the Baja California Peninsula. It served as the capital of Las Californias from 1697 to 1777, and is the current seat of the municipality of Loreto in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur...

 near the Gulf of California

Gulf of California

The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland...

 coast of what is today the Mexican state of Baja California Sur

Baja California Sur

Baja California Sur , is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state on October 8, 1974, the area was known as the South Territory of Baja California. It has an area of , or 3.57% of the land mass of Mexico and comprises...

. The site was intended to serve the local Monqui

Monqui

The Monquis were the Native American inhabitants of the vicinity of Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico, at the time of Spanish contact. Probably first encountered by explorers traveling up the Gulf of California during the sixteenth century, they were subjected to some of the peninsula's earliest...

 and Cochimí

Cochimi

The Cochimí are the aboriginal inhabitants of the central part of the Baja California peninsula, from El Rosario in the north to San Javier in the south....

 natives. The aboriginal settlement was known in the Monqui language as Ligüí and in Cochimí as Malebat.

The site proved to be a poor one, with little agricultural potential. The mission was closed in 1721, when the remaining neophytes were moved to the new mission of Dolores

Misión Nuestra Señora de los Dolores del Sur Chillá

The Jesuit missionary Clemente Guillén founded Mission Dolores in 1721, on the Gulf coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico, about midway between Loreto and La Paz in Baja California Sur, Mexico....

 in the territory of the Guaycura

Guaycura

The Guaycura were a native people of Baja California Sur, Mexico, occupying an area extending south from south of Loreto to Todos Santos. They contested the area around La Paz with the Pericú....

, to the south of San Juan Bautista. Surviving archaeological remnants of the abandoned mission include several sections of building foundations.

See also

• Spanish missions in California
  Spanish missions in California
  The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the Christian faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by Europeans to...