The five Fran­cis­can mis­sions of Sier­ra Gor­da were built dur­ing the last phase of the con­ver­sion to Chris­tian­i­ty of the inte­ri­or of Mex­i­co in the mid-18th cen­tu­ry and became an impor­tant ref­er­ence for the con­tin­u­a­tion of the evan­ge­liza­tion of Cal­i­for­nia, Ari­zona and Texas. The rich­ly dec­o­rat­ed church facades are of spe­cial inter­est as they rep­re­sent an exam­ple of the joint cre­ative efforts of the mis­sion­ar­ies and the Indios. The rur­al set­tle­ments that grew around the mis­sions have retained their ver­nac­u­lar char­ac­ter.