• The churches of San Antonio were the heart of the Spanish colonal mission communities.

    San Antonio Missions

    National Historical Park Texas

The Church

The church was the focal point of community life. The structure was prominent within the compound. The convento, or living quarters of the missionaries and several lay assistants, was in close proximity to the church building. The cemetery, well used as the result of European diseases, lay adjacent.

Daily life was centered around the church with its summons to worship and prayer, the fields, the workshops, and the classrooms. Conversion was encouraged when living in the missions, and required in order to become Spanish citizens.

 

back to Mission Community

The Church

The Native People

The Franciscans

The Spaniards - Peninsulares, Criollos, and Mestizos

Farming

Ranching

Caminos Reales

Did You Know?

Ruins of a home at Mission Espada

that Spanish missions were not churches? They were Indian towns, with the church as the focus, where, in the 1700s, the native people were learning to become Spanish citizens. In order to become a citizen, they had to be Catholic; that is why the King of Spain sent missionaries to acculturate them.