Market Square - El Mercado and Pan Dulce

Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)

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

Time for a treat. Market Square is billed as the largest Mexican market in the United States, a cheerful maze of shops, food stalls and restaurants under strings of papel picado.

The square has two main halls. El Mercado, with about 32 shops, sits in a building completed in 1938 and 1939 as a Works Progress Administration project. It began as the Municipal Truck Market, where farmers sold produce straight from their trucks, so locals called it the Farmers Market. The last produce was sold there in 1975, and the building was renovated into an enclosed mercado. Farmers Market Plaza next door holds about 80 more shops.

Follow your nose to Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia, a local institution whose bakery cases are filled with pan dulce, the sweet breads of Mexico. Try a concha, a soft roll with a crunchy sugar shell. On weekends and festival days, the square often fills with music and dancing, especially around Cinco de Mayo.

Getting here: Walk back up Laredo Street to Commerce Street, turn left and continue west about two blocks to Market Square.

Did you know?: Market Square hosts San Antonio's big Cinco de Mayo celebrations and many other fiestas through the year.

Photo op: Stand under the colorful papel picado banners in the plaza and shoot upward for a burst of color against the sky.

More on Wikipedia: Market Square · Works Progress Administration

Market Square - El Mercado and Pan Dulce

Stops on this tour