A visual catalog of Spanish frontier missions, 16th to 19th centuries

From the 16th to the early 19th centuries, the Spanish Crown sponsored missions staffed by members of different Catholic missionary orders to evangelise the indigenous populations, and engage in social engineering in line with royal policy.

The missionaries directed the construction of building complexes that included churches, leaving behind an important historical and architectural legacy.

This visual catalog documents the surviving complexes on selected missions on the frontiers of Spanish America in what today is Mexico and parts of South America.

It also presents basic historical data on the mission communities, including demographic data, and documents damage to early mission buildings by the earthquakes of September 7 and September 19, 2018.