TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The San Xavier del bac Mission is a National Historical Landmark in Tucson, built between 1783 and 1797, and is part of the Tohono O’odham Nation.
It’s made of low-fired brick, stone, and the whole interior is filled with oil paintings.
It’s currently undergoing a restoration and preservation project on the Retablo Facade, which is the face of the church.
The Retablo Facade is the most highly decorated portion of the church's exterior and hasn’t seen any comprehensive conservation work since the 1950s.
Starr Herr-Cardillo, Patronato San Xavier Director of Conservation says, “It’s really the only place on the outside that still has original finishes and paints on it.”
More than 200 years of harsh desert weather have worn away the decorative details and most of the original color from the facade.
The project to preserve the facade is complex and will involve five phases of work.
"So we’re taking a very sensitive approach trying to preserve everything that’s there, that’s original and help people see it a little bit better," Herr-Cardillo said.
Phase one just wrapped up which included stabilizing the surface and toning fills where they needed to match the color of surrounding historic fabric.
“We focused on the strip, see the Franciscan Shield with the coat of arms? So that strip where it’s a little bit whiter in the background there, that’s where we worked and you can see there’s a settled difference from the rest," Herr-Cardillo said.
She said the goal of the restoration campaign in the 50s was to make it look authentic, assess the damage, stabilize it and make sure it didn't decay further.
"But they were using materials that they thought were good to use at the time, similar to how the whole outside of the building was once coated with Portland cement," Herr-Cardillo said. "We now understand that's too dense of a material. It causes some damage when water gets trapped behind it, so our work is not repainting. It's just focused on removing incompatible past repair material where it's safe to do that and then hopefully exposing or making more legible, the original finishes and colors that are there."
Phase two is a continuation of phase one and will begin later this year, aiming for sometime in late October depending on weather.
“And then there’s later phases of the work that are going to be more noticeable changes," Herr-Cardillo said. "So one big really exciting part is the statue at the very top with the broken pediment, it's just covered in concrete. It kind of deteriorated. It used to be a statue of St. Francis of Assisi."
She says it was converted into a flagpole at some point, but having historic photos will help them explore reconstructing the statue.
The conservation team started researching what the entire project would look like back in 2009.
Herr-Cardillo says Timothy Lewis and Matilde Rubio of Tohono Restoration have been involved since the 1990s and are the leads on the Retablo Facade project.
The price to restore history is over $1 million dollars.
Fortunately, the Mission received a Semiquincentennial Grant for $749,000 from the National Park Service to cover most of the costs.
The rest is coming in through donations.
Susie Moreno is the Preventive Conservation Technician for Patronato San Xavier and says her connection runs deep because she was born and raised in San Xavier and was even baptized in the Mission.
"I started training eight years ago in 2016 with my aunt and my uncle, Tim and Matilde, who are the master conservators here at the Mission for the last 30 years," Moreno said. "And then, as well as pursuing my bachelor's degree at the University of Arizona. My degree is in sustainable built environments through the school of architecture, and my emphasis is in heritage conservation."
She said working at San Xavier feels like it was meant to be.
"I kind of just fell in love within my first week of working, getting into this work," Moreno said. “And just realizing it’s more about preserving our culture, and our heritage for our people and the community here and the visitors and tourists.”
The church sees more than 250,000 visitors annually who come from all over the world.
The conservation team is hoping to finish the project between 2027 and 2028.
If you would like to visit the San Xavier Mission, also known as the Dove of the Desert, it's open everyday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., as well as the museum.
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Vanessa Gongora is KGUN 9's Westside reporter.. Vanessa fell in love with storytelling by growing up in sports. She was fascinated by how sports reporters go beyond the x's & o's to tell players' stories, and how sports bring people together, inspiring Vanessa to provide the same impact as a journalist. Share your story ideas and important issues with Vanessa by emailing vanessa.gongora@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
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