Approximate Location of the Missions

For about a year, 1730 to 1731, three East Texas missions stood on the Colorado River near today's Zilker Park, after the friars asked to leave once the Dolores presidio was abandoned. One of them, San José de los Nazonis, began in 1716 for the Nasoni people whom Domingo Ramón's expedition encountered; Isidro Félix de Espinosa headed it and Fray Benito Sánchez was its first minister. San Francisco de los Neches had been reestablished in 1721 near present Alto, in Cherokee County. In 1731 all three moved to the San Antonio River.

What the plaque says

Approximate Location of the Missions Approximate location of the Missions San Francisco de Los Neches, Nuestra Senora de la Purisma Concepcion, San Jose de los Nazonis. Established in East Texas by Franciscan missionaries in 1716 for the Christianizing and civilizing of the Indians in the region. Abandoned temporarily due to the French incursions from Louisiana in 1719. Restored by the Marquis of Aguayo in 1721. Removed to the Colorado River in 1730. Permanently placed on the San Antonio River in 1731 and there known respectively as San Francisco de la Espada, Nuestra Senora de la Purisma Concepcion de Acuna, San Juan Capistrano. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Barton Springs Pool — steps away
  A three-acre pool in the bed of Barton Creek, fed by the fourth-largest spring in Texas at 68 to 70 degrees, and shared with an endangered salamander found almost nowhere else.
• Texas State Capitol — 1.9 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 2.2 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.
• Harry Ransom Center — 2.3 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.

More markers nearby

• Andrew Jackson Zilker — steps away
• Barton Springs — steps away
• Swedes of Texas — 0.5 mi
• Austin High School — 0.7 mi