Real Presidio de San Saba

The Handbook of Texas dates the Marqués de Rubí's inspection to July 27, 1767, when he found conditions the worst in the provinces; his engineer, Nicolás de Lafora, drew a plan of the presidio, and Rubí urged abolishing or moving it. Felipe de Rábago y Terán, refused leave to move the post, later abandoned it without orders; he was reprimanded for failing to burn or raze the buildings and was removed. A royal decree formally abandoned the fort in 1772. Later visitors scratched names in the gate: Padilla 1810, Cos 1829, Bowie 1831, Moore 1840.

What the plaque says

Originally established on the San Gabriel River as the Presidio of San Francisco Xavier in 1751 moved to the present site in 1757 as a protection to the Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba known as the Presidio de San Luis de Las Amarillas 1757-1761. After March 1761 the name was real Presidio de San Saba the stone building was completed in 1761.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Presidio de San Saba — steps away
  The ruins of the largest Spanish presidio in Texas, built in 1757 to guard a mission to the Lipan Apache, where the Comanche and their allies first turned back Spain's frontier.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 19 mi
  The post Sherman called the prettiest in Texas, home to soldiers of all four Buffalo Soldier regiments and then to a town that lived in its buildings until 1973.

More markers nearby

• Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba — steps away
• Arroyo de Juan Lorenzo — 0.4 mi
• The Ditch — 1.1 mi
• Paso de la Santa Cruz — 1.1 mi