San Antonio Missions

Seeing the Alamo in San Antonio has always been on our list. What we didn’t know before is that the Alamo is only 1 of 5 Spanish missions along the San Antonio river. The 5 missions were built in the early 1700’s as the means for Spain to extend their presence in the New World. The idea was to convert the indigenous people into good Spaniards which, at the time, also meant good Catholics.

The Mission Road along the river connected the 5 missions to New Spain (now Mexico).

 

 

 

Mission San Jose is the best preserved and most extensive of the 5. Each mission had a large central plaza where families camped/lived, a granary for storing food, a convento where the missionaries lived and a chapel. Eventually a perimeter wall was added to protect the inhabitants from Indian attacks. The walls also contained housing for the resident families.

The Chapels were amazingly ornate with beautiful stone work.

These curved pillars were fascinating – an ingenious way to hold up the walls starting with a vertical column.

 

Mission San Juan Capistrano was less developed than the others. The chapel was actually a facade built around the granary. But the land was fertile and so this mission supplied much of the food for the others.

 

Mission Espada was the oldest of the missions and was originally established in East Texas before being moved to the San Antonio river in 1731. It was the only mission that made bricks, which can still be seen in the construction detail.

 

 

Mission Concepcion was the northernmost of the 4 missions south of San Antonio. The Alamo is located in what is now San Antonio.

 

The Alamo. Probably the most visited, least preserved of the 5. But since there are a lot of visitors, it had a very touristy feel. While the others were open for wandering around, the Alamo had guards, concession stands (souvenir picture??) and the granary is now a gift shop. They also didn’t allow photography in the chapel, perhaps hoping to sell their pictures instead.

But it also told a very strong story about the culture of Texas independence. The 13 day siege during the battle for Texas independence against President-General Santana is a central part of the Texas mystique.

We visited during the middle of the anniversary of the siege.

Some French visitors learned that the rifles used by the defenders were made in France!

Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were among the most well-known of the defenders to die in the siege.

 

Visiting the missions was great. It gave us a bit of a window into the times and conditions of the day and, more importantly, into the Texas psyche.

 

But if not…