Mission: Possible

I've spent a lot of time in and around churches over the holidays, much more than I usually do  . In addition to our recent visits to Main Plaza and San Fernando Cathedral, I paid an overdue repeat call on the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River just before Christmas.

The kids and I broke up a strenuous cycling workout with a delightful lunch at Blue Star, and equally enjoyable tours of two of our National Park (and World Heritage-worthy) missions.

The one above is the lovely Mission Concepción. Since the last time I visited here, we couldn't go in, and I didn't take as many pictures there as at the other missions, I tried to make up for it this time. 

Besides its handsome exterior and grounds, the interior of Concepción is really its highlight. The colorful decorations on many of its interior walls have been restored, and I was very much looking forward to seeing them this time. Here are a couple of glimpses:

the altar, with restored decorative walls

a lovely multi-colored lantern

Some of the other walls have not yet been restored...

this room will be great when they do the restoration!

barrel-vaulted ceiling in one of the side rooms with charming decorations

And here are some more shots of Concepción's impressive exterior:

Off to one side of the grounds, there's a grotto built out of amazingly hole-y (pun intended) chunks of limestone...

And we learned that we probably aren't the most famous people to visit this mission...

probably while he was in town recruiting for the Rough Riders?

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The mission I told you the most about last time was San José. We did visit it again on this trip, and found it just as impressive as ever...

...inside and out...

In case you're wondering about the title for this post, our exercising/sight-seeing excursion was made possible by the wonderful Mission Reach trail, and I thought it was fitting to acknowledge that. More about our transport between missions next time.

On a Mission, part 2

After an extensive tour of Mission San José, we made off southward to visit the other San Antonio River mission sites, opting to go to the end of the line first then work our way back.

This strategy made Mission Espada our second stop. Moved to its present site in 1731, it is less well-restored than San José, but still interesting and possessed of a kind of eroded loveliness. The small chapel (where services are still held, as they are at all of these mission churches) is shown at the left above and a remnant of the compound's buildings are at the right.

The Park's informational materials tell us that Espada has the most well-preserved acequia system. These irrigation canals brought the river's water to the missions' fields and residences. Unfortunately, it was much too hot even at mid-morning for us to feel like exploring further than just Espada's main compound (see below). Perhaps if we return on a cooler day we'll be able to see and appreciate these engineering marvels.
Next stop upstream is Mission San Juan Capistrano. [not the famous mission with the swallows, in California—apparently Señor Capistrano was a big enough name to have more than one church named for him!] Our San Juan has a couple of special features, in addition to this lovely chapel:
One is a nature trail that leads down to the river, giving perhaps a glimpse of what the waterway looked like throughout its reach 'way back when, before the WPA and the Corps of Engineers had anything to say about it. On the left you can get some idea (fortunately, the trail was very short, since, did I mention it? It was very HOT during our tour!).

There's also this very large grove?—stand?—patch?—of impressively spiky-looking cacti you can see at the right, forming an unusual setting for the cross in the middle of the mission grounds.

San Juan was also moved to its present location from eastern Texas in 1731 [was that a particularly bad year for mosquitoes in the piney woods?] and was known as having the best farmland among all the missions. Irrigated, of course, by the acequias.

The interior of the chapel was light enough to get a good photo, so I snapped this to give you an idea of the charm of these still-active places of worship:
Skipping over San José on our way upstream, we ended up our mission tour with Mission Concepción, whose grounds are not as extensive (probably because of its location so much closer to the heart of the city where real estate has always been more precious) but whose buildings were perhaps our favorites.

One reason for this preference was the still-extant original colorful decorations adorning several of the rooms. You can get some idea of the charm of these spaces in the photo at the left.

The chapel also displays remnants of the mission's more colorful past, as well as showing off the impressive dome that you can see from the inside on the right.

Another 1731 transplant from East Texas, Concepción was a great way to end up our missions tour [although we did feel obligated to drive by the Alamo on our way home, in the interests of completeness]. Here is a shot of this handsome structure:

But we did find out, through Joan's research and helpful Park Service personnel, that there was one more mission at least planned along the San Antonio River acequia system: Mission San Francisco Xavier de Nájera. Doesn't sound familiar? Not too surprising, since if it was ever built, there's nothing left of it now. The tribe for which it was intended, according to the ranger, wasn't as amenable to the Franciscans' "civilizing" influence as were its neighbors. The Handbook of Texas indicates that something was at least staffed with this name, for a few years in the 1720's, but the mission eventually merged with that of San Antonio de Valero [better known as the Alamo]. But now there's only this historical marker, at the edge of a golf course, to show that it ever existed. We're glad there's so much more surviving of the other missions, and look forward to another visit to see more of their grounds—in the winter!

On a Mission, part 1

Tops on our list of tourist attractions to cover during Joan's first trip to San Antonio in a decade was the Missions. Especially since she'd never seen any of them other than the Alamo, and I, shamefully, had only gone one better.

We started out with the one I have seen before, San José (official name: Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo), which is also the site which provides my new blog banner. Here is another view of the impressive church with some of its side structures, taken from within a doorway in one of the restored mission rooms:

There has actually been quite a lot of restoration work at this mission over the years, but that doesn't detract from its loveliness or historical interest. The Park Service informational signs give you a good record of its ups and downs as a site that's been by turns sacred, abandoned, re-discovered, neglected, mis-used, and, finally, treasured and protected.

The whole grounds are interesting, but the highlights, in addition to the chapel (pictures coming up) are the arches which form an arcade along one side of the mission complex. Great photo opps here!

Some of the interior spaces are quite impressive, too. For example, there's this round room you can see on the right, with incredibly thick walls and picturesque tiny windows. We were to learn by seeing some similar structures elsewhere in this complex and at some of the other missions, that it was a kind of guard house or defensive bulwark where attacking Indians could be fired upon from safety. Most of the rooms of this type, however, were much smaller than this one, which must be 20 feet or so in diameter.

Another even more spectacular interior space is the granary, shown in the picture below. You can also see some of the original colorful decorations that at one time graced the exteriors of all the missions as well, at least to the best of archeologist's knowledge. There is a remnant of the exterior decoration at San José on the side of the chapel's exterior wall, in the picture on the left above.

The jewel of San José, and perhaps of the whole mission system, is its elaborately Baroque chapel. The limestone carvings and statuary around the doors and windows are fine examples of Spanish colonial style. While the mission itself was established in 1720, construction of the chapel began in 1768, the "peak of the mission's development," according to the Park brochure, when 350 Indians lived there.

The most famous bit of carving is around the "Rose Window," which I can remember puzzled me mightily when I first saw it, since I was expecting a window like the ones with that name in European cathedrals. But there is an intriguing mystery surrounding this window in addition to the impressive stonework. Was it called the "Rose Window" because of the lost love, named Rosa, of the stonemason who carved it? Or was it named for St. Rose of Lima, first saint of the New World? Or was it given its name to confuse tourists with a smattering of art history knowledge?

Here is more of the beautiful stonework (some of it partially restored, some original) adorning the chapel:

And here is a shot showing more of the facade, so you can see where the doors fit in:

Church services are still held in the chapel, as they are at each of the missions, which makes them even more impressive structures—still important parts of their communities, even as the modern city has grown up around them. [Weddings are held here, too—including one of my sister-in-law's!]

After touring San José we headed off downstream (all the missions, logically enough, were founded along the banks of the San Antonio River) to see the other three non-Alamo missions. None of these other sites are as well-preserved and/or restored as San José, but each one holds particular interest for the tourist. And since I'd never seen them before, I was excited about the journey. I'll have pictures from these other missions in my next post.