Queen of the Missions is the name given to Mission Santa Barbara, the Misión de Santa Bárbara, and it rises in front of you. This site was founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén for the Franciscan order on December 4, 1786 — the feast day of Saint Barbara — as the tenth mission of what would later become 21 missions in Alta California. The mission was built as part of Spain’s broader effort to consolidate its claim on Alta California against rival empires.
In practice, that effort aimed to turn local indigenous tribes into 'good Spanish citizens'; here that meant engagement with the Chumash-Barbareño people through religious conversion and integration into the Spanish colonial economy. For the Chumash, the mission’s large herd of livestock altered the environment, and epidemics and military force were also part of the story; together these pressures left tribal members with little choice but to join the mission system, resulting in a type of forced servitude. This place gave its name to the city of Santa Barbara and to Santa Barbara County.
Santa Barbara the city and Santa Barbara County both took their names from this mission.