San Antonio Missions National Historical Park

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park strings four Spanish mission communities along the eight-mile Mission Trail south of downtown: Concepción, San José, San Juan and Espada. With the Alamo, the Rancho de las Cabras and the acequias, they make up the San Antonio Missions World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2015 and still the only one in Texas. All four churches are active Catholic parishes, and the National Park Service describes the missions as communities, schools, workplaces, churches and now sacred burial grounds.

Start at Mission San José, where the park visitor center, museum and film are. Antonio Margil de Jesús asked for the mission in December 1719, and it was founded in 1720 for about 240 Pampopa, Pastia and Sulujam people. At its height in 1768, 350 people lived inside its stone walls, each family in a room and kitchen built into the wall. The church begun that year earned San José its name as the Queen of the Missions. Its dome and roof fell in December 1868, and the church, walls and granary were rebuilt from 1932 with Works Progress Administration help, so San José is the most restored of the four. The carved sacristy window known as the Rose Window was restored between 1947 and 1952.

The builders were Indigenous South Texans from many bands, collectively called Coahuiltecans. Some came for food and protection; some fled and were forced back. Their descendants still baptize, marry and pray at these churches, and the park exhibit We're Still Here records their memories of growing up behind the mission walls.