Visiting the Missions
Spanish Colonial Architecture The Alamo
Early missions were unwalled com­munities Mission San Antonio de Valero is commonly
built of wood or adobe. Later, as tensions called the Alamo (right). Founded in 1718, it
between northern tribes and mission resi­ was the first mission on the San Antonio
dents grew, these structures were encircled River. After 106 years as the sole caretaker
by stone walls. Directed by skilled artisans of the Alamo, the Daughters of the Repub­
recruited from New Spain, the mission lic of Texas now manages this state historic
Indians built their communities. They pre­ site under the Texas General Land Office.
served the basic Spanish model, modified
as frontier conditions dictated.
Concepción
The mission of Nuestra
Señora de la Purísima
Concepción was trans-
ferred from East Texas
in 1731. The church
looks essentially as it
did in the mid-1700s as
the mission’s center of
religious activ­­ity. Color-
ful geometric designs
once covering its sur-
face have long faded.
San José
In 1720 Fray Antonio
Margil de Jesús found-
ed the best known of
the Texas missions, San
José y San Miguel de
Aguayo. San José was
the model mission
organization and a
major social center.
Visitors praised its
unique church archi-
tecture and the rich
fields and pastures.
San Juan
Mission San Juan Cap-
istrano was originally
San José de los Nazonis
in East Texas. In 1731 it
was moved to its per-
manent home on the
San Antonio River’s
east bank. Its fertile
farmland and pastures
would soon make it a
regional supplier of
produce. Orchards and
gardens outside the
Espada
Founded in 1690 as
San Francisco de los
Tejas, this old­­est of
the East Tex­as missions
was moved to the San
Antonio River in 1731
and there renamed
San Francisco de la
Espada. Espada looks
nearly as remote now
as in the mid-1700s.
It was Spanish policy
that missionaries make
mission community life
Mission Ranches
A mission’s goal of self-
sufficiency de­pend­­ed
on the success of its
farm and ranch. Free-
roaming livestock on
the mission ranches
proved very profitable.
Surplus sheep, goats,
and cattle were sold or
traded to the presidios
and civil set­tlements as
far south and west as
Coahuila (in present-
day Mexico) and east
About Your Visit
The visitor center—located at 6701 San José
Drive, San Antonio, TX 78214—and missions are
open daily except Thanksgiving Day, December
25, and January 1. The park has picnic tables.
Food, camping, and lodging are nearby.
For Your Safety Be careful: walks, ramps, and
steps can be uneven and slippery. • Avoid fire
ants; stay on sidewalks. • Lock your car with
valuables out of sight. • Flash floods are com­
ALL PHOTOS NPS
mon and deadly. When the San Antonio River
rises, the mission trail south of Mission San José
is closed. Don’t pass barriers that announce
water on roads. Be cautious at water crossings.
Missionaries worked to conversions when Indi- Be Considerate Stay off fragile stone walls. The
replace traditional ans took the sacra- missions are places of worship. Do not disrupt
Indian rituals with reli- ments. religious services; be respectful of priests and
gious festivals teaching parishioners.
Christian be­liefs. Carv- While some of these
ings of the saints and conversions were tem-
Firearms See the park website for regulations.
objects of adoration porary, the combined
were pop­ular images religious training and
of Cath­o­l­icism among Accessibility We strive to make our facilities,
Original interior paintings pag­eantry were largely
the Indians. Mor­ality re­main at Mission Concep­ successful.
services, and programs accessible to all. For in-
plays and religious cel- ción. Some are religious formation go to the visitor center, ask a ranger,
ebrations were used symbols, while others are call, or check our website.
for in­struction. Mis- decorative, imitating archi­
sionaries recognized tectural elements. Congress created San Antonio Missions National
Historical Park in 1978. By cooperative agree-
ment with the Archdiocese of San Antonio, mis-
sion churches remain active centers of worship.
The National Park Service has cooperative agree-
ments with the City of San Antonio, County of
The size of the com- The mission residents
Bexar, State of Texas, and San Antonio Conserva-
plex testifies to San learned to use firearms
José’s reputation as to fend off Comanche tion Society. This is one of over 400 parks in the
the “Queen of the and Apache raids. Their National Park System. To learn more about na-
Missions.” skill—plus imposing tional parks, visit www.nps.gov.
walls—discouraged
Its village was central enemy attacks. More Information
to a suc­cess­ful mission, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
and the layout of the Fine details in San José’s 2202 Roosevelt Avenue
mission compound legend­ary Rose Window, San Antonio, TX 78210
shows how important or Rosa’s Window (right), 210-932-1001; headquarters 210-534-8833
show the Spanish artisans’
the community’s life www.nps.gov/saan
high level of skill.
was. Massive stone
walls were for de­fense. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
The Acequia System
walls grew peaches, The missions of San
melons, pumpkins, Antonio were not only
grapes, and peppers. self-suffi­­c­ient, but they
Its irrigated fields pro- supported settlements
duced corn, beans, and the nearby presi-
sweet potatoes, squash, dio (fort). In the good
and even sugar cane. times they traded sur­
plus goods to others.
In 1762 Mission San This thriving econ­omy
Juan’s herds were said helped the missions to Arches of the two-centuries-old Espada Aqueduct.
to number 3,500 sheep Mission San Juan’s gate survive epidemics and
and nearly as many typifies the Romanesque warfare. The success of any mission depended on crops.
cattle. arches found throughout Sparse rainfall and the need for irrigation made
the missions. it a priority to create seven gravity flow ditch
systems, called acequias. Five dams and several
aque­­ducts along the San Antonio River ensured
the flow of river water into the system. In Span-
ish Texas, irrigation was so important that crop-
land was measured in suertes, the amount of
like a Span­ish village’s Espada was the only land that could be watered in a day. The 15-mile
life. To develop a solid mission that made network irrigated about 3,500 acres of land.
economy, they taught bricks, which you can
mission Indians voca- still see. Mission Espada has the best-preserved acequia
tions. Men learned to system. Espada Dam, completed by 1745, still di-
weave cloth. Black- Work skills from the verts river water into an acequia madre (mother
smiths, indispensable, mission period were a ditch). Water is carried over Sixmile Creek (his-
repaired farm imple- boon to San Antonio’s torically Piedras Creek) via Espada Aqueduct—
ments and broken post-colonial growth. the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States.
metal tools. Others Mission artisans’ influ- Some say the broken arch
over the Mission Espada Floodgates controlled water flow to fields for
learned carpentry, ence shows through-
doorway is a builder’s irrigation and bathing, washing, and powering
masonry, and stone- out today’s city.
cutting for building mistake, but many find mill wheels. Farms still use this system today.
beauty in how it inverts
elaborate buildings. the line you expect.
to Lou­isiana. Mission quent­to be effective. even longhorn cattle
Espada’s Rancho de las When all un­branded began in the Spanish
Cabras (Ranch of the cattle became property colon­­ial period. The
Goats) was built like a of the Crown and sub- mission ranches left a
small for­tress to pro- ject to taxation in rich heritage of equip-
tect the va­queros and 1778, the vast mis­­­sion ment, vocabulary, and
their families. herds were re­duced to folklore.
several hund­red head.
Growing conflicts with Rancho de las Cabras
Apa­­­che Indians began America’s cattle indus- is southwest of Flores-
the mission ranches’ try in the 1800s stood ville, Texas. Access to
de­cline in the 1770s. on these Texas mission the site is by ranger-
Branding cattle in ranches’ legacy. Indus- guided tour. Contact
the rough south Texas try regulations, ways the park for a current
brush country was dif- of handling the herds tour schedule. ✩GPO:20xx—xxx-xxx/xxxxx Reprint 20xx
ficult and too infre­ from horseback, and Printed on recycled paper.