San Antonio MISSIONS

1
San Antonio MISSIONS

• Four Spanish frontier missions, part of a
  colonization system that stretched across the
  Spanish Southwest in the 17th, 18th, 19th
  centuries, are preserved here. They include
  Missions San Jose, San Juan, Espada, and
  Concepcion. The park, containing many cultural
  sites along with some natural areas, was
  established in 1978. The park covers about 819
  acres.

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Typical Mission Day

• Day in, day out, mission life revolved around
  three goals established by the Spanish Crown and
  Franciscan Missionaries to instill the Catholic
  faith, insure obedience to and protect the
  interests of the Spanish Crown, and to acquire
  skills to ensure economic self sufficiency.
• Morning
• For mission residents, days were highly
  structured. At sunrise, bells called them to
  morning mass, followed by singing, prayers, and
  religious instruction, after which they returned
  to their quarters for their morning meal.
•  
• Afterward, some men headed for the fields,
  orchards, gardens, or quarries. Others stayed
  behind to work in the forge, render tallow, cure
  hides, engage in masonry or carpentry work. Women
  learned new ways to prepare food, to sew, spin,
  weave, garden, make candles and soap. Fishing and
  arrow making were accomplished by older mission
  residents. Children over the age of five
  practiced their catechism.
•  
• Some mission inhabitants were assigned to live
  temporarily at the distant mission ranches to
  tend livestock.
•  
• A few Indian converts were trained in the use of
  firearms and other defensive weaponry. Soldiers
  detailed from the presidio to protect the
  missions were few, usually limited to two
  military men and their families, making it
  essential that some trusted mission inhabitants
  learn rudimentary military arts in order to
  protect their community from enemies.
•  
• The success of mission vocational training is
  apparent in the structures they built, fertile
  farms tilled, and the growing herds of horses,
  cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock.
•  

3
Day Continued

• Afternoon
• Ringing bells of the noon Angelus called everyone
  to the midday meal, typically consisting of a
  dish of maize (corn) with a daily ration of beef,
  vegetables (most often squash and beans), and
  fruit. After a brief rest, work resumed within
  the compound and fields until the bells summoned
  everyone home at sunset.
•  
• Evening
• After another brief rest, mission inhabitants
  participated in a recitation of the rosary
  accompanied by chanting and singing. After an
  evening meal of fish, beans, and corn, curfew
  brought the day to a close.

4
Concepcion

• Originally founded in 1716 in what is now eastern
  Texas, the mission was one of six developed by
  Franciscans to serve as a buffer against the
  threat of French incursion into Spanish territory
  from Louisiana. After a tenuous existence and
  several moves, the mission was transferred to its
  present site in 1731.
• This handsome stone church was completed in 1755,
  and appears very much as it did over two
  centuries ago. It remains the least restored of
  the colonial structures within the Park. In its
  heyday, colorful geometric designs covered its
  surface, but the patterns have long since faded
  or been worn away.

5
Concepcion is Moved

• Transfer of the MissionOriginally founded in
  1716 in what is now eastern Texas, the mission
  was one of six developed by Franciscans to serve
  as a buffer against the threat of French
  incursion into Spanish territory from Louisiana.
  After a tenuous existence and several moves, the
  mission was transferred to its present site in
  1731.
• This handsome stone church was completed in 1755,
  and appears very much as it did over two
  centuries ago. It remains the least restored of
  the colonial structures within the Park. In its
  heyday, colorful geometric designs covered its
  surface, but the patterns have long since faded
  or been worn away.

6
San Juan

• Originally founded in 1716 in eastern Texas,
  Mission San Juan was transferred in 1731 to its
  present location. In 1756, the stone church, a
  friary, and a granary were completed. A larger
  church was begun, but was abandoned when half
  complete, the result of population decline.

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San Juan

• A Self-Sustaining Community
• By the mid 1700s, San Juan, with its rich farm
  and pasturelands, was a regional supplier of
  agricultural produce. The National Park Service
  will recapture this role with the planned return
  of water to the San Juan Acequia, an irrigation
  ditch, to be used to irrigate a Spanish Colonial
  demonstration farm.
• San Juan was a self-sustaining community. Within
  the compound, Indian artisans produced iron
  tools, cloth, and prepared hides. Orchards and
  gardens outside the walls provided melons,
  pumpkins, grapes, and peppers. Beyond the mission
  complex Indian farmers cultivated maize (corn),
  beans, squash, sweet potatoes, and sugar cane in
  irrigated fields. Over 20 miles southeast of
  Mission San Juan was Rancho de Pataguilla, which,
  in 1762, reported 3,500 sheep and nearly as many
  cattle.
• These products helped support not only the San
  Antonio missions, but also the local settlements
  and presidial garrisons in the area. With its
  surplus, San Juan established a trade network
  stretching east to Louisiana and south to
  Coahuila, Mexico. This thriving economy helped
  the mission to survive epidemics and Indian
  attacks in its final years.

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Irrigation

• San Juan Acequia
• Using a system which has its roots in the ancient
  Middle East, Rome, and the great Indian
  civilizations in Mesoamerica, this irrigation
  ditch was built to water the nearby mission
  lands. This means of irrigation was adopted by
  later Anglo-American, German, and Italian
  settlers in South Texas. The San Juan Acequia is
  restored to use again for watering the Spanish
  Colonial Demonstration Farm.

9
San Jose

• Founded in 1720, the mission was named for Saint
  Joseph and the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo,
  the governor of the Province of Coahuila and
  Texas at the time. It was built on the banks of
  the San Antonio river several miles to the south
  of the earlier mission of San Antonio de Valero
  (the Alamo).
• Mission San Jose continues to be an active
  parish. Visitors are welcome to attend mass on
  Sundays.

10
Rose Window

• San Juan
• La Ventana de Rosa (the Rose Window), the south
  window of Mission San Josés sacristy (photo
  1980). The window, sculpted ca. 1775, has been
  the object of both legend and admiration. The
  window has also been described during the Feast
  of Pentecost as the site where the host was shown
  to gathered celebrants.
•  

11
Espada

• Founded in 1690 as San Francisco de los Tejas
  near present-day Weches, this was the first
  mission in Texas. In 1731, the mission was
  transferred to the San Antonio River area and
  renamed Mission San Francisco de la Espada. A
  friary was built at Espada in 1745. The church
  was completed in 1756.

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Acequia at Espada

• Espada Acequia
• Mission Espada's acequia (irrigation) system can
  still be seen today. The main ditch or acequia
  madre, continues to carry water to the mission
  and its neighboring farm lands. This water is
  still used by residents living its former mission
  lands.
• The initial survival of a new mission depended
  upon the planting and harvesting of crops. In
  south central Texas, intermittent rainfall and
  the need for a reliable water source made the
  design and installation of an acequia system a
  high priority. Irrigation was so important to
  spanish colonial settlers that they measured
  cropland in suertes, the amount of land that
  could be watered in one day.
• The use of acequias was originally brought to the
  arid regions of Spain by the Romans. When
  Franciscans missionaries arrived in the desert
  Southwest they found the system worked well in
  the hot, dry environment. In some areas, like New
  Mexico, it blended in easily with the irrigation
  system already in use by the Puebloan Native
  Americans.
• In order to distribute water to the missions
  along the San Antonio River, Franciscan
  missionaries oversaw the construction of seven
  gravity-flow ditches, dams, and at least one
  aqueduct--a 15-mile network that irrigated
  approximately 3,500 acres of land.

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Missions

• The missions continue to be a tourist attraction
  today. Many adults and students visit these
  missions each year. Some of the churches still
  hold masses.