California's first mission, with its gleaming white stucco façade and distinctive five-bell campanario, occupies a secluded site on the north slope of the San Diego River valley. The Mother of the Missions was named for St. Didacus of Alcalá, a 15C Spanish Franciscan friar credited with miraculous healing power. Originally established atop Presidio Hill in 1769 by Padre Junípero Serra, the mission was relocated here in 1774. In 1775 it was burned and looted in a violent Kumeyaay Indian uprising. A larger complex, surrounded by high adobe walls, was completed in 1776. In 1813 a new, larger adobe church was completed with buttresses for earthquake stability. The mission's population reached its peak in 1824 when some 1,829 neophytes resided here. The sparsely furnished casa del Padre Serra, where the friar resided during his frequent visits to the mission, is the only remaining fragment of the original monastery. The church interior, restored in 1931 to its 1813 appearance, measures 150ft by 35ft, its width kept narrow by the lack of tall trees to use for ceiling beams. Some of the beams, adobe bricks in the baptistry arch, and darker floor tiles were salvaged from the 1813 church. In the sanctuary, note the 18C painting of St. Didacus, rescued from the fire of 1775, and the hand-carved wooden statues that survive from the early mission period. The mission museum (behind the church) houses artifacts recovered from the site by archaeological excavations.