Ancestral Sites - Ramada & Torreon

Here is evidence of one of the first structures built in the convento and one of the last. The small rings of stones in front of you mark where builders set posts in the ground to support the roof of a ramada, or brush shelter. Visitors to the first church tied their horses here in the shade. 

The large foundation to the right of the ramada is what is left of a D-shaped torreón, or watch tower, built a century and a half later. During the Comanche raids of the mid-1700s, the gates of the pueblo were fortified and Spanish troops were stationed here.