Saint Michael's Catholic Church

The plaque credits San Antonio contractors named Dielmann; the first name on it belongs to a prolific church architect. Leo M. J. Dielmann was born in San Antonio on August 14, 1881, the son of builder John C. Dielmann of Hellenhahn-Schellenberg, Germany. After St. Mary's College he studied architecture at Idstein, saw the 1900 Paris Exposition and came home in 1901. He favored German Gothic, and at least sixty steeples came from his drawings, the painted church at High Hill among them. He became San Antonio's building inspector in 1909 and died in 1969.

What the plaque says

Saint Michael's Catholic Church Established as a Mission in 1888, by Father Edward Brucklin, who became first resident priest in 1892. An earlier frame structure was replaced by this stately sanctuary in 1913, under direction of Father Joseph Szymanski (1873-1948), who served the congregation for 42 years. The imposing edifice was constructed of Elgin brick by Italian and Mexican craftsmen directed by contractors L. M. and J. C. Dielmann of San Antonio. The Gothic revival architectural style reflects the central European heritage of the Czechoslovakian and German settlers. (1975)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church (Dubina) — 3.6 mi
  The church of Texas's first Czech settlement, under a sky-blue painted ceiling that was whitewashed in the 1950s and brought back from faint traces by its own parishioners.
• St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (Ammannsville) — 7.3 mi
  A wooden Carpenter Gothic church built in 1919 after storm and fire took two before it, its dusty-rose interior painted by an artist whose name was lost for decades.
• Nativity of Mary, Blessed Virgin Catholic Church (High Hill) — 8.9 mi
  A red brick Gothic Revival church of 1906 in a German farm settlement, where two San Antonio painters spent 1912 faking marble columns and stone vaults on wood.
• Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites — 14 mi
  A shared tomb on the Colorado River bluff for the men of the Dawson fight and the black bean lottery, beside the ruins of a German stonemason's spring-fed brewery.

More markers nearby

• Town of Weimar — 0.3 mi
• Etta Moten Barnett — 0.3 mi
• Weimar Railroad Depot — 0.3 mi
• John Pettit Borden — 0.9 mi