Los Adaes

Spain's first church here stood about a mile and a half southwest of the later presidio. Founded in 1717 for the Adai and renamed San Miguel de Cuéllar de los Adaes in 1718, it fell in 1719 when French soldiers from Natchitoches raided it during the War of the Quadruple Alliance, an episode remembered as the Chicken War. The Spanish pulled out of East Texas until the Aguayo expedition of 1721 returned and rebuilt in a more defensible spot. It was built to answer the French post at Natchitoches.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Los Adaes State Historic Site — 0.7 mi
  The Spanish presidio that was the capital of Texas from 1729 to 1770, some 15 miles from French Natchitoches, now an archaeological site where Native pottery is the most abundant find.
• Fort Jesup State Historic Site — 8.9 mi
  The 1822 army post Zachary Taylor built to hold the Neutral Ground between Louisiana and Spanish Texas, with the one surviving kitchen, a reconstructed officers' quarters and a museum open Friday to Sunday.
• Natchitoches Historic District — 12 mi
  The riverfront blocks of the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase, founded in 1714 at a Natchitoches village, with a brick-paved Front Street, Cane River frontage and the largest bousillage construction in the South.
• Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site — 13 mi
  A reconstruction of the 1716 French fort beside the Natchitoches village, with a palisade of nearly 2,000 pine logs, a chapel and storeroom, and living-history programs, open Wednesday to Sunday.

More markers nearby

• The Presidio Nuestra Senora del Pilar de los Adais — 0.5 mi
• Church of St. Anne (Mother Church of Caddo Adai Indians) — 5.9 mi
• Saint Tekakwitha Plaque and Statue — 5.9 mi
• Francois Rouquier Homesite — 11 mi