It started with a mission and a river. In 1718 Spanish friars founded a mission and a presidio on a spring-fed river in South Texas and named both for St. Anthony. Within a few years there were five missions strung along the water, and a town grew up among them — built by Spanish friars, Canary Island farmers, German brewers, and Texas cattlemen. Three centuries later the missions are a World Heritage Site and the river is the most famous walk in Texas. This is the deep, layered San Antonio underneath it all — and this page tells that story.
The five missions are the city's crown. San José, the "Queen of the Missions," still shows its carved Rose Window and great stone granary; Concepción keeps traces of its painted walls; San Juan and Espada anchor the southern end of the river trail. And Mission San Antonio de Valero — the first of them — is the one the world now knows as the Alamo. A battle was fought there in 1836 during the Texas Revolution, with heavy losses on both the defenders' and the Mexican army's sides; it is a solemn place, remembered very differently by different people. In 2015 all five missions together were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site — the only one in Texas.
Why People Visit San Antonio Texas
- Walk the River Walk (Paseo del Río), the cypress-shaded riverside promenade below street level.
- Visit the Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero), the first of the city's five Spanish colonial missions.
- Tour Mission San José, the "Queen of the Missions," with its carved Rose Window and stone granary.
- Follow the Mission Trail to Concepción, San Juan, and Espada along the river.
- Step inside San Fernando Cathedral on Main Plaza, begun by the 1731 Canary Island colonists.
- Explore the Pearl, the restored historic brewery district north of downtown.
- Wander Brackenridge Park and the Japanese Tea Garden, with stone footbridges and koi ponds.
- Browse Market Square (El Mercado), the largest Mexican market in the United States.
