La Villita - The Little Village

Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

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

Cross the street and you step into La Villita, the little village, one of San Antonio's oldest neighborhoods. In the 1700s, Spanish soldiers stationed at the mission that became the Alamo lived here with their families in brush huts called jacales. A flood in 1819 washed most of them away, and sturdier adobe and stone houses took their place. Later in the 1800s, immigrants from Germany, France and Italy moved in and set up shops and trades.

This was also where an earlier chapter of the Texas Revolution ended. In December 1835, Mexican General Martin Perfecto de Cos signed the surrender of San Antonio in a house here, after Texian and Tejano forces won the Siege of Bexar. That handed the Alamo to the rebels, setting the stage for Santa Anna's march north.

By the 1930s the area had decayed, and in 1939 Mayor Maury Maverick launched a restoration alongside the River Walk project. Wander the shaded lanes, browse the artists' studios and shops, and look for the Cos House on Villita Street.

Getting here: Cross to the west side of Alamo Street and walk into La Villita's shady lanes.

Did you know?: Each April during Fiesta San Antonio, La Villita hosts A Night in Old San Antonio, a four-night food festival that draws about 85,000 people and raises money for the San Antonio Conservation Society.

Photo op: Look for a lane where old stone walls, bright doors and tree shadows line up for a quiet, timeless shot.

More on Wikipedia: La Villita · Martin Perfecto de Cos · Siege of Bexar

La Villita - The Little Village

Stops on this tour