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

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