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San Antonio Missions
The chain of missions established along the
San Antonio River in the 1700s is a reminder
of one of Spain’s most successful attempts
to extend its dominion northward from New
Spain (present-day Mexico). Collectively they
form the largest concentration of Catholic
missions in North America.
spreading the Catholic faith—the basis of
Spanish colonial society—among the frontier
Indians. Financed by the Crown, Franciscan
missions served both Church and State. As an
arm of the church, the mission was the vanguard for converting the Indians spiritually. As
an agent of the state, the mission helped push
the empire northward. Missions also offered
Indians sanctuary from their enemies.
Tales of riches spurred the early Spanish explorers northward across the Rio Grande. By
the 1600s Spaniards penetrated areas to the
east, encountering the Tejas Indians for whom
Texas is named. As dreams of wealth faded,
the Spanish concentrated more fully on
Threatened by French encroachments from
Louisiana, Spain stepped up its colonization in
1690, establishing six missions in East Texas.
Needing a way station between these and
Extended families
would come together
in larger bands when
food was abundant.
other Franciscan missions in New Spain, the
friars transferred a failed mission on the Rio
Grande to the San Antonio River in 1718. It
was renamed mission San Antonio de Valero,
later called the Alamo.
Water, timber, and wildlife in this rich valley
had long attracted Spanish explorers. Noting
the many Coahuiltecan (kwa-weel-teken)
Indians nearby, Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús
established a second mission, San José, in
1720. As the East Texas missions failed due to
disease, drought, and shifting relations with
France, three were moved to the San Antonio
River valley in 1731. These five missions, a
presidio (fort), and settlement were the seeds
for one of the most successful Spanish communities in Texas. These missions flourished
between 1747 and 1775, despite periodic raids
by Apache and Comanche Indians. Military
support was never adequate, so the Spanish
trained the Christianized mission Indians to
defend their communities.
After 70 years there was less need for the
missions because of the effects of European
diseases, acculturation, and intermarriage.
By 1824 the San Antonio missions were
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
secularized—the lands were redistributed
among the inhabitants, and the churches
were transferred to the secular clergy.
The Spanish missions helped form the foundation for the city of San Antonio. Modern
San Antonio early recognized the missions’
significance, and since the 1920s the city
has worked to preserve them. Today these
missions represent a nearly unbroken connection with the past. Carrying the legacy
of generations of American Indians and
Hispanics, they live as active parishes.
The Franciscan Missions
Coahuiltecans
American Indians living
in the San Antonio missions came from several
hunting and gathering
bands known collectively as Coahuiltecans
(kwa-weel-tekens).
Ranging across today’s
south Texas and northeastern Mexico, they
moved with the seasons in search of food.
The bands had distinct
dialects and religious
practices but shared
broad characteristics.
San Antonio Missions
National Historical Park
Texas
Men hunted the occasional bison, deer, or
rabbit or trapped fish
and snakes. But fruits,
nuts, beans, roots, and
seeds gathered by the
women and children
were the bulk of their
diet.
Wearing skins and woven sandals, they used
bows and arrows, fishing nets, digging sticks,
and grinding stones to
get and prepare food.
When time permitted
they made brush huts
and wove sleeping
mats. They produced
simple pottery and
were fine basket
makers, using baskets
to store and carry food.
They practiced rites of
passage and observed
seasonal ceremonies
that were common to
many hunter-gatherer
cultures.
Even before mission life
changed their ancient
living habits, the Coahuiltecans were being
pressed by nomadic
tribes encroaching from
the north. But a greater
threat was the European diseases introduced
by the Spanish, which
eventually decimated
their numbers. Struggling under such hardships, Coahuiltecans
proved to be relatively
willing recruits for the
missionaries. In exchange for labor and
conversion to Catholicism, Indians received
food and refuge in the
missions.
cartographers, diplomats, scientific observers, and chroniclers.
But their primary New
World task was to expand Spanish culture
to whatever lands the
Crown claimed.
Fray Antonio Margil de
Jesús (1657–1726), founder The mission system
of Mission San José.
sought to bring Indians
SAN JACINTO MUSEUM, HOUSTON
Cross and Crown
Spanish colonialism, like
that of other nations
then, was exploitative.
Yet the Franciscans directed these missions
with a gentle hand. An
order of friars whose
members took vows of
poverty, chastity, and
obedience, the Franciscans pledged to serve
as protectors of the Indians. They also helped
the Crown as explorers,
into Spanish society by
concentrating the scattered tribes as churchcentered communities.
With the direction of
the Franciscans, the Indians built these communities, eventually
erecting stone structures and developing
stable economies.
Missions functioned
primarily as religious
centers and training
grounds for Spanish
citizenship. Indians
were taught obedience
to the Crown along
with the vocational
skills needed for economic self-sufficiency.
Massive stone walls
around the compounds
gave residents security
from enemies. Helped
by soldiers from the
nearby presidio (fort),
the San Antonio missions also defended
the King’s dominions.
Soldiers taught the Indians to use European
arms. Nearly all armed
patrols in Spanish Texas
that pursued Apache
and Comanche Indians
included mission Indian
auxiliaries.
Life in the Mission
The Indian neophytes’
days were highly structured. At sunrise, bells
called them to morning Mass, singing,
prayers, and religious
instruction. They then
returned to their quarters for the morning
meal, usually a corn
dish.
tend gardens; and
make soap, pottery,
and candles. Older
residents fished and
made arrows. The neophytes practiced their
catechism, usually in
Spanish. Prayers and a
little free time ended
the day. Church feast
days were welcome
breaks in the routine.
Most men and boys
headed for the fields,
orchards, gardens, or
quarries. Others stayed
behind to forge iron,
weave cloth, or build
structures. A few tended livestock at the distant ranches. Women
and girls learned to
cook, sew, and spin;
Discipline—religious,
social, and moral—was
the essence of the mission system. Although
some Coahuiltecans
fled the missions to return to their old life,
most accepted Catholicism and actively took
part in Spanish society.
Mission San José, mid-1700s
ILLUSTRATION OF MISSION LIFE
NPS/RICHARD WILLIAMS
Visiting the Missions
Spanish Colonial Architecture
Early missions were unwalled communities
built of wood or adobe. Later, as tensions
between northern tribes and mission residents grew, these structures were encircled
by stone walls. Directed by skilled artisans
recruited from New Spain, the mission
Indians built their communities. They preserved the basic Spanish model, modified
as frontier conditions dictated.
The Alamo
Mission San Antonio de Valero is commonly
called the Alamo (right). Founded in 1718, it
was the first mission on the San Antonio
River. After 106 years as the sole caretaker
of the Alamo, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas now manages this state historic
site under the Texas General Land Office.
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.
ALL PHOTOS NPS
Concepción
The mission of Nuestra
Señora de la Purísima
Concepción was transferred from East Texas
in 1731. The church
looks essentially as it
did in the mid-1700s as
the mission’s center of
religious activity. Colorful geometric designs
once covering its surface have long faded.
Missionaries worked to
replace traditional
Indian rituals with religious festivals teaching
Christian beliefs. Carvings of the saints and
objects of adoration
were popular images
of Catholicism among
the Indians. Morality
plays and religious celebrations were used
for instruction. Missionaries recognized
conversions when Indians took the sacraments.
While some of these
conversions were temporary, the combined
religious training and
Original interior paintings pageantry were largely
remain at Mission Concep- successful.
ción. Some are religious
symbols, while others are
decorative, imitating architectural elements.
The size of the complex testifies to San
José’s reputation as
the “Queen of the
Missions.”
Its village was central
to a successful mission,
and the layout of the
mission compound
shows how important
the community’s life
was. Massive stone
walls were for defense.
Be Considerate Stay off fragile stone walls. The
missions are places of worship. Do not disrupt
religious services; be respectful of priests and
parishioners.
Firearms See the park website for regulations.
Accessibility We strive to make our facilities,
services, and programs accessible to all. For information go to the visitor center, ask a ranger,
call, or check our website.
Congress created San Antonio Missions National
Historical Park in 1978. By cooperative agreement with the Archdiocese of San Antonio, mission churches remain active centers of worship.
The National Park Service has cooperative agreements with the City of San Antonio, County of
Bexar, State of Texas, and San Antonio Conservation Society. This is one of over 400 parks in the
National Park System. To learn more about national parks, visit www.nps.gov.
San José
In 1720 Fray Antonio
Margil de Jesús founded 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 architecture and the rich
fields and pastures.
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 common 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.
The mission residents
learned to use firearms
to fend off Comanche
and Apache raids. Their
skill—plus imposing
walls—discouraged
enemy attacks.
More Information
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
2202 Roosevelt Avenue
San Antonio, TX 78210
210-932-1001; headquarters 210-534-8833
www.nps.gov/saan
Fine details in San José’s
legendary Rose Window,
or Rosa’s Window (right),
show the Spanish artisans’
high level of skill.
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San Juan
The Acequia System
Mission San Juan Capistrano was originally
San José de los Nazonis
in East Texas. In 1731 it
was moved to its permanent 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
walls grew peaches,
melons, pumpkins,
grapes, and peppers.
Its irrigated fields produced corn, beans,
sweet potatoes, squash,
and even sugar cane.
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
like a Spanish village’s
life. To develop a solid
economy, they taught
mission Indians vocations. Men learned to
weave cloth. Blacksmiths, indispensable,
repaired farm implements and broken
metal tools. Others
learned carpentry,
masonry, and stonecutting for building
elaborate buildings.
Espada was the only
mission that made
bricks, which you can
still see.
A mission’s goal of selfsufficiency depended
on the success of its
farm and ranch. Freeroaming 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 presentday Mexico) and east
to Louisiana. Mission
Espada’s Rancho de las
Cabras (Ranch of the
Goats) was built like a
small fortress to protect the vaqueros and
their families.
quent to be effective.
When all unbranded
cattle became property
of the Crown and subject to taxation in
1778, the vast mission
herds were reduced to
several hundred head.
In 1762 Mission San
Juan’s herds were said
to number 3,500 sheep
and nearly as many
cattle.
Mission San Juan’s gate
typifies the Romanesque
arches found throughout
the missions.
The missions of San
Antonio were not only
self-sufficient, but they
supported settlements
and the nearby presidio (fort). In the good
times they traded surplus goods to others.
This thriving economy
helped the missions to
survive epidemics and
warfare.
Espada
Work skills from the
mission period were a
boon to San Antonio’s
post-colonial growth.
Mission artisans’ influence shows throughout today’s city.
Some say the broken arch
over the Mission Espada
doorway is a builder’s
mistake, but many find
beauty in how it inverts
the line you expect.
Arches of the two-centuries-old Espada Aqueduct.
The success of any mission depended on crops.
Sparse rainfall and the need for irrigation made
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 Spanish Texas, irrigation was so important that cropland was measured in suertes, the amount of
land that could be watered in a day. The 15-mile
network irrigated about 3,500 acres of land.
Mission Espada has the best-preserved acequia
system. Espada Dam, completed by 1745, still diverts river water into an acequia madre (mother
ditch). Water is carried over Sixmile Creek (historically Piedras Creek) via Espada Aqueduct—
the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States.
Floodgates controlled water flow to fields for
irrigation and bathing, washing, and powering
mill wheels. Farms still use this system today.
Mission Ranches
Growing conflicts with
Apache Indians began
the mission ranches’
decline in the 1770s.
Branding cattle in
the rough south Texas
brush country was difficult and too infre-
America’s cattle industry in the 1800s stood
on these Texas mission
ranches’ legacy. Industry regulations, ways
of handling the herds
from horseback, and
even longhorn cattle
began in the Spanish
colonial period. The
mission ranches left a
rich heritage of equipment, vocabulary, and
folklore.
Rancho de las Cabras
is southwest of Floresville, Texas. Access to
the site is by rangerguided tour. Contact
the park for a current
tour schedule.
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