abandonment

Translated, mission’s full name “Our Lady of Sorrows, for the Ais,” evokes its sorrowful story, that of a small frontier mission built in the 1720s for the Ais Indians, the native group who lived along nearby Ayish Bayou.

Construction of this mission began in 1627 by Fray Juan Gutiérrez de la Chica. At its peak, the Quarai pueblo had approximately 1,000 rooms and housed between 600 and 700 residents of both native and Spanish decent. The pueblo buildings were arranged around a number of small plazas.