Historical Marker
Mission San Juan Capistrano
San Antonio, Bexar County · Texas
Erected 1967
After the missionaries left, San Juan went quiet for long stretches. Building had stopped in 1786 as the native population declined, and on June 5, 1794, the mission's lands were divided into twenty-six parcels. It stood nearly abandoned from 1820 to 1840, before John M. Odin's revival of the church in Texas. Regular worship returned briefly in the early 1900s under Father Francis Bouchu, and after a lapse in 1907-08 the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary rebuilt the chapel. A 1983 agreement between the Interior Department and the Archdiocese shapes its care today.
What the plaque says
Mission San Juan Capistrano Founded in March, 1731, by Franciscan missionaries on the banks of the San Antonio River; Named for St. John of Capistrano, who in 1456 lead a European religious crusade that saved the city of Belgrade from infidels. Mission San Juan was a successor to Mission San Jose De Los Nazonis, established in 1716 in east Texas. It moved here due to the difficulty of defense. One of a complex of missions, San Juan was devoted to the cultural and religious conversion of the Coahuiltecan-speaking Indians of south Texas. During the uncertain early years, buildings were constructed, crops planted, and the Indians had to be continually persuaded to stay long enough to reap the benefits of civilization. Apache raids, cholera and smallpox epidemics, and harassment by the civil authorities also plagued the missions constantly. By 1762, however, San Juan had surplus harvests of corn, cotton, beans, chili peppers, watermelons,and cantaloupes. It also owned numerous cattle, sheep, goats, and horses. The 203 resident Indians lived in thatched huts; the chapel and convent were of stone. The mission was secularized in 1794. In 1967, when the buildings were restored, many artifacts relating to the three centuries of occupancy were unearthed. (1967)
Where it stands
29.33275, -98.45493 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Mission San Juan — steps awayThe mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.
- Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 1.0 miThe southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
- San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 2.5 miFour working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
- Mission Concepción — 4.6 miA stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.