San Fernando Cathedral

The site of San Fernando was chosen on July 2, 1731, when the presidio captain Juan Antonio Pérez de Almazán laid out a central square for the newly arrived Canary Islanders' villa of San Fernando de Béxar and set the church on its west side. The cornerstone of a first stone church was most likely laid on May 11, 1738. With 12,000 pesos approved by the viceroy in 1748, the stonemason Gerónimo de Ibarra and the stonecutter Felipe de Santiago of San Luis Potosí rebuilt and enlarged it, finishing in 1755. The parish took in Valero's records and people in 1793 and the four downriver missions' in 1824.

The church was at the center of the town's wars. James Bowie married Ursula de Veramendi here in 1831. During the siege of Bexar in 1835 Mexican cannons stood on its roof, and in 1836 Santa Anna used it as a lookout and flew a red flag from it to signal no quarter for the Alamo's defenders.

By 1840 half the roof was gone. From 1868 the architect François Giraud razed the old bell tower and part of the nave and built the Gothic Revival church in front, with three portals and twin towers. The old dome fell in 1872, the new church was consecrated in October 1873, and it became a cathedral in 1874. Pope John Paul II visited on September 13, 1987. It remains a busy parish, with many Masses in Spanish.