User:GoldenArmorYeah/Mission Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera

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Mission Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera is a Spanish mission located in Ímuris, founded in by

History

The first documented mention of Cocóspera was in Father Eusebio Kino's memoirs, where he Father Visitor Manual Gonzáles visited Cocóspera in early 1689. Father Juan del Castillejo became the mission's first resident priest either later that year or in early 1690, though he stayed for less than a year.

In 1697, Father Kino said that Cocóspera had the "good beginnings of a church". These beginnings were likely completed by February 1698, but shortly thereafter, the village, church, and the priest's residence were sacked and burned by an attacking force of approximately 300 Jocomes, Sumas, and Apaches. Cocóspera’s location made it vulnerable to Apache raids from the surrounding mountains and valleys.

Despite this, Father Kino remained determined and ordered the roofing of the small church in 1700. By 1701, towers were added to help defend Cocóspera. The following year, construction began on a larger adobe church, which Kino believed surpassed the quality of his other works in the region. Cocóspera eventually became a visita (satellite missions) of the cabecera (head mission) Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (de Cósari). Kino was particularly proud of the church at Cocóspera, noting that it "turned out even better" than his other churches due to its transepts and architectural improvements.

After Kino's death in 1711, Cocóspera fell into decline, and by 1720, the physical condition of the mission was in disrepair. By 1730, the church was in ruins, and in 1746, another Apache raid destroyed the remaining structures. Although in ruins, Cocóspera provided refuge to O'odham people fleeing other abandoned missions in the 1740s. Another Apache attack in 1776 further devastated the area.

Father Juan de Santisteban arrived at Cocóspera in 1784 and served for almost 17 years, during which he undertook significant restoration efforts. Santisteban reinforced the original Jesuit adobe walls, likely from Kino’s 1704 church, adding new features such as a baptistry, sacristy, choir loft, and twin bell towers. The roof, covered in fired clay tiles, was unique for its time and the first of its kind in the upper Pimería. Inside, the church featured a barrel-vaulted ceiling made of plastered beams and small transverse poles. The sanctuary’s roof, which survived until 1935, was a brick barrel vault.

Father Santisteban left Cocóspera in 1801, after which other Franciscan priests served the mission until 1836. With the departure of the last Franciscan and increased Apache raids, the mission's population dwindled, and the site fell into abandonment. Briefly, in 1851 and 1852, French colonists attempted to settle there, but they abandoned it.

In the 1980s, Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) erected scaffolding at the front of the church to prevent its collapse. Although it looks somewhat appalling, this distraction cannot hide what was once great.

External links

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