The Alamo - A Mission Before a Battlefield

Photo: Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Antonio River Walk and the Alamo, a free self-guided tour.

You are facing the most famous building in Texas: the church of Mission San Antonio de Valero, founded by Spanish Franciscans in 1718 and moved to this spot in 1724. For decades Indigenous families lived, farmed and worshipped here under the mission system. After the mission closed in 1793, a Spanish cavalry company from Alamo de Parras in Mexico was stationed here, one possible source of the name Alamo.

In 1836 this was the scene of a 13-day siege. Some 185 to 260 defenders, Anglo-Americans and Tejanos alike, held the compound against about 2,000 Mexican troops under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. To Mexico, they were rebels in arms against the national government; Anglo settlers' resentment had grown when Mexico's new central government ended local exemptions that let them keep enslaved people. The final assault on March 6 killed nearly all the defenders, including Tejano Jose Gregorio Esparza, and left an estimated 400 to 600 Mexican soldiers killed or wounded. Women, children and Joe, an enslaved man, survived.

Getting here: Start on Alamo Plaza, facing the front of the old mission church.

Did you know?: The Alamo is one of five Spanish missions in San Antonio that became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015. The other four - Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan and Espada - lie a few miles south along the river and make a rewarding side trip.

Photo op: Step back toward the middle of the plaza to fit the whole curved facade; early morning brings soft light and thin crowds.

More on Wikipedia: Alamo Mission · Battle of the Alamo · Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna · Jose Gregorio Esparza

The Alamo - A Mission Before a Battlefield

Stops on this tour