Patronato’s popular Docent-led Public Tours have resumed.
To find out more about Docent-led tours, click here
Special Group Tours and School Tours remain temporarily suspended.
Our Mission
Patronato San Xavier funds and directs ethical conservation, conducts scientific research, and interprets the significance of Mission San Xavier del Bac, a National Historic Landmark in the community of Wa:k, part of the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Take a Self-Guided Virtual Tour
of Mission San Xavier
To take 360-degree self-guided tour of the Mission, click on the link below, then scroll down past the photo of the Mission to the section that says “Tour Inside”. Once there, click on the white circles with black arrows to follow the tour through the Church, the Mortuary, and the Museum Rooms. Patronato San Xavier extends many thanks to Visit Tucson, who have kindly allowed us to present this virtual tour of Mission San Xavier on our website.
Two New Priority Projects
With the East Tower project completed in April, attention is now turning to two new large-scale projects; conservation of the interior art in the high dome and conservation of the iconic facade. On the interior, it is time to address conditions of the artwork within the high dome of the Church. This work was one of the first areas addressed by the European conservators who performed the first ever conservation of the artwork back in the 1990’s. Thirty years on, it is time to review that earlier work and to stabilize the plaster surfaces that support the art.
Our thanks to Robert Shea for this incredible shot of the blood moon over Mission San Xavier del Bac on January 31, 2018.
In The News
Close look at Mission San Xavier’s intricate entrance reveals surprises
By Henry Brean | Arizona Daily Star
Art conservators found something staring back at them when they climbed the scaffolding last month to study the façade of Southern Arizona’s most famous church. As it turns out, the doomsday mouse at San Xavier del Bac has round, metal nails for eyes. That was news to Tim Lewis and Matilde Rubio, who have worked on artwork at the mission for decades.
Conservation of Mission San Xavier’s East Tower underway; work to be completed within a year
(March 22, 2021— Tucson, Ariz.)— The Patronato San Xavier has begun the second phase of work on...
Tucson Opinion: Preserving Mission San Xavier in a time of crisis |tucson.com
By Miles Green Special to the Arizona Daily Star. We don’t need to look east for our history. Mission San Xavier, designated as one of the first National Historic Landmarks in 1960, is an active parish that typically welcomes over 200,000 visitors a year. Visits inside the church are currently limited to 5 minutes.