The Spanish Missions of San Antonio, Texas

Besides being the place that I and many others call home, Texas is unique in the modern United States of America in more ways than any other state. A huge part of this is that there have been six official flags that have flown over Texas in modern North American history. Six Nations has Texas been a part of, and we've a very firm Spanish historical connection here, quite literally, written in the stone walls of the Spanish Missions across the State.

San Antonio, Texas - besides being one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the United States of America, was also one of the most loved by the Spanish that colonized it, and left us all with Five Beautiful Missions that we can all still see and enjoy.

I honestly can't speak for the rest of the USA, but here in Texas, The Alamo is a VERY BIG DEAL. I can assume that if you are reading this that you well know about The Alamo, and if you do not, then your schooling, if done in America, was pathetic.

The Alamo was not originally a military fort at all, it only became one during the most famous battle of the Texas Revolution. The Alamo was a Spanish Mission long before it was militarized, and named The Alamo, which is Spanish for Cottonwood.

Originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, The Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. Construction began on the present site in 1724. In 1793, Spanish officials secularized San Antonio's five missions and distributed their lands to the remaining Indian residents. These men and women continued to farm the fields, once the mission's but now their own, and participated in the growing community of San Antonio, but by the early 1800's The Alamo had become a military fort for Spanish Calvary, later, it would become a military base for Mexican Revolutionaries and Mexican Royalist

But in In December 1835, Ben Milam - an ancestor of my own - led Texian and Tejano volunteers against Mexican troops quartered in the city. After five days of house-to-house fighting, they forced General Martín Perfecto de Cós and his soldiers to surrender. Following that The Alamo became a Texian fortress, and the rest, quite simply, is history.

San Jose Mission was founded by famed Father Antonio Margil de Jesús, a very prominent Franciscan missionary in early Texas in 1720 and is a few miles South of San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) along the San Antonio River.

The San Jose Mission is an active parish, and you too can attend mass on any Sunday.

The San Jose Mission is known as the Queen Of Missions for it's large size, and far more exquisite beauty than the others, but of course, that is all subjective. It was also once a totally impregnable fortress that the raiding Comanche and Apache Indians could never breach.

La Ventana de Rosa, the Rose Window, sculpted ca. 1775, has been the object of both legend and admiration. It is considered one of the finest examples of baroque architecture in North America.

Mission San Juan was originally not in San Antonio. The original Mission San Juan was somewhere in East Texas, and was formed in 1716. The San Juan Mission of San Antonio was transferred to there in 1731 and in 1756 the Church construction was completed.

The San Juan Mission of San Antonio, Texas was a self sustaining community complete with orchards, iron works, and myriad vegetables produced annually. The San Juan Mission, in it's heyday of peak performance produced such a surplus of crops that it traded it's wares as far East and North as Louisiana, and as far South as Coahuila, Mexico. The economy of the San Juan Mission helped it survive through many attacks by Native American tribes.

Mission Concepcion was dedicated in 1755 and is the oldest non restored stone church in the United States of America. Though a lot of the detail is worn away, many of the old and original frescoes are still available to be seen in various room on the inside of the church.

Visitors can still go to church at Concepcion Mission every Sunday at ten o'clock a.m. The friars at this mission worked very hard towards replacing the Natives folk or religious rituals with those containing Catholic Christian ideals.

The oldest of the five Spanish Missions along the San Antonio River, the Mission Espada is the only one that dates back to the seventeenth century - as it was formed in 1690. Like the Mission San Juan, the Mission Espada features a large triangular bell above the church. Though the Mission Espada has not had an active convent in over a hundred years - Franciscans regularly feed the birds, the cats in the area, and the place always has phenomenally beautiful flower gardens.

San Antonio is one of the most beautiful cities in not only North America, but the entire world. It has a deep and varied history full of regional color - and FIVE beautiful Spanish Missions for all to see, and to, hopefully, be preserved for generations to come.