Statue of San Diego de Alcalá at USD.

A statue depicting San Diego de Alcalá stands in a beautiful garden near the center of the Catholic University of San Diego.

San Diego de Alcalá (also known as Saint Didacus and Diego de San Nicolás) is the patron saint of USD, not to mention the Franciscan missionary and saint after which San Diego was named.

In 1542 explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo named our city’s bay San Miguel.

Sixty years later, when Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno sailed into our bay on November 10, 1602, he named it San Diego, which was also the name of his flagship. He put San Diego on his map. That name stuck.

I took photographs of the San Diego de Alcalá statue several months ago, when I visited USD’s Arts and Culture Festival. (Yes, I’m finally posting these photos!)

The bronze sculpture stands in Plaza de San Diego next to the Maher fountain. According to this, it was moved there in 2017 from the entrance of Copley Library.

I know nothing more about the statue. When was it created? By whom? If you know anything more about it, your comment would be very welcome!

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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!